Presented by Encores! at New York City Center, (May 8-12).
The Encores! Series at New York City Center winds up its 2013 season with an elaborate and often thrilling mounting of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart‘s landmark work from 1936, On Your Toes, with its groundbreaking infusion of ballet, both classic and jazz-inspired, integrated directly into the plot.
The piece was a collaboration of genius creators. In addition to composer Rodgers and lyricist Hart, George Balanchine did the choreography and legendary Broadway showman George Abbott directed the show and co-authored the book along with the songwriting team. The Encores! production is in the very capable hands of director/choreographer Warren Carlyle, a veteran of the series, and if the jokey business in the storytelling seems limp at times, it is hard to tell whether it is just a somewhat creaky script or the uncertain pace of an opening night.
But you can hardly quibble with a show that sports a first-rate cast delivering glorious dancing, classic Rodgers and Hart songs, and an ineffable sense of vintage glamour. The score includes such tunes as ‘There’s a Small Hotel’, ‘Glad To Be Unhappy’, ‘It’s Got To Be Love’, ‘Quiet Night’ and the rousing title song, which ignites one of the most galvanising ensemble dance numbers ever put on stage. In addition, there’s Rodgers’ pulsating music for the climactic ‘Slaughter On Tenth Avenue’ ballet.
The plot of On Your Toes centres on Phil Dolan III, otherwise known as Junior, who as a kid was a vaudeville hoofer with his mom and dad and now is a music teacher. Through various complications he gets back to dancing when he takes a score written by one of his students to the illustrious Russian Ballet company, which decides to produce the ballet.
Shonn Wiley makes Junior a winning innocent, and he dances like a demon. Even more breathtaking dancing comes from Irina Dvorovenko, as the company’s volatile prima ballerina, and Joaquin De Luz as her equally temperamental dance partner and lover. Kelli Barrett provides sweetness as Junior’s love-smitten songwriting student and a lovely lead voice for some of the show’s beautiful ballads.
Walter Bobbie (who is also well-known for his director credits, among them the long-running revival of Chicago) is convincing and engaging as the ballet company‘s impresario, while the invaluable Christine Baranski shines with both ultra-sophistication and musical comedy know-how as the company’s wealthy patron. In what are basically cameo roles, Karen Ziemba and Randy Skinner (a choreographer himself) add more Broadway shimmer as Junior’s dancing parents.
Encores! continues to bill itself as ‘Great American Musicals in Concert’, but its shows have evolved into something very much like full productions. Yes, the orchestra of some 30 pieces is situated on stage, and the performers on occasion carry scripts but rarely, if ever, look at them. What is amazing is all the work that is achieved in a somewhat scandalously short rehearsal period, and then only plays for such a limited number of performances. Of course, a very small number of its productions have moved on to Broadway (Chicago being the most notable), but for the musical theatre fanatics, Encores! Productions are always anticipated as something to be cherished, even though they’re here today and gone tomorrow.
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