'Bob Fosse's Dancin' ’: All that jazz minus magic

‘BOB FOSSE’S DANCIN”: Peter John Chursin, Manuel Herrera, Yeman Brown & Jacob Guzman. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

BOB FOSSE’S DANCIN’
Originally created, directed & choreographed by Bob Fosse
Directed & staged by Wayne Cilento
Music Box Theatre
239 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), https://dancinbway.com/

By David NouNou

This version of Dancin’— as we are told in promotional fliers pasted all over the Broadway theatre district—is “utterly reimagined for the 21st Century,” and ads for the show include the tagline “The Moves He Invented. Reinvented.” Reinventing a classic and putting a new spin on a cherished Broadway musical is often necessary to modernize a show, but this revival of Dancin’ will have Bob Fosse purists scratchin’ their heads for so many reasons.

When it came to choreography, Bob Fosse was the epitome of class. To see his work as a performer, you can watch him in the 1954 movie Kiss Me, Kate as Hortensio and as Frank in the 1956 movie My Sister Eileen. He later became the choreographer of such musicals as The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, ’Little Me, later still, director and choreographer for Sweet Charity, Pippin, Chicago, Dancin’, and his final show in 1986, Big Deal. This is not even mentioning his movie career as a director.

Wayne Cilento was one of his principal dancers in the original 1978 version of Dancin’ and prior to that he was Mike in the original cast of Michael Bennett’s A Chorus Line. He worked and learned from two of Broadway’s supreme geniuses. Both Mr. Fosse and Mr. Bennett started out as dancers themselves and transitioned to director and choreographer, and both knew a dancer’s body and motion. Both Mr. Fosse and Mr. Bennett had their own style and class. So, it’s perplexing how Wayne Cilento has somehow turned Mr. Fosse’s class into crass, and gloss into dross.

Both Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett also knew who the hardest-working people in a musical were. Not necessarily the stars but the dancers who worked behind the stars and they glorified their dancers. Bennett’s homage was A Chorus Line and Fosse’s was Dancin’. Staying with Fosse, many excellent dancers came out of that show: Ann Reinking, Wayne Cilento, Sandahl Bergman, Bebe Neuwirth (as a replacement for Ann Reinking in 1981), Vicki Fredrick, Linda Haberman, John Mineo, Christopher Chadman to name just a few. He gave each dancer a specialty number that made them stand out and memorable. Even as a duo, trio, or as a group, you recognized the dancer from a previous number. They all had a distinct look that made them stand out.

Mr. Cilento has maintained the signature Fosse moves: the hip thrust and the shoulder shimmy that was once sexy now comes across as simply sleazy. “Mr. Bojangles,” originally sung by Mr. Cilento and danced by Christopher Chadman, sent chills—you could actually see Mr. Chadman soar high as the lyric states, but in this version no soars, no chills, no thrills. You can’t even remember which dancer did what. The “Big Spender” number from Sweet Charity I think is one of Mr. Fosse’s finest and purest numbers, with the most simplistic of staging: The women were each unique and dazzlers, a feast for the eyes and ears as they undulated to the bar to get your attention and you knew each woman. Somehow, Mr. Cilento just threw his dancers in a pile, giving none of them an identity. I could find fault in all the numbers but that would only ruin the show for you.

Suffice it to say, most of the numbers are still intact, but they lack smooth transitioning. There was a breeziness to the shifting and lifts from one number to another in the original production; now they just meld into each other with no discernible purpose. However, there is a most unnecessary inclusion that the original didn’t have. The original was done in 1978; the whole ending now is from Mr. Fosse’s 1986 dud musical Big Deal. Unfortunately, since this was his last and least thrilling of shows, you might ask yourself why was there such a huge chunk of the second act ending attributed to Big Deal? Your guess would be as good as mine.

Bob Fosse gave laser-focused movements to his dancers, from the way the arm is bent, the legs are stretched, and the placement of the fingers, they were all synchronized to perfection, 16 dancers moved as one. If you want to see an example of this, watch ME TV (or any cable TV channel that still airs it) The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966 where Gwen Verdon dances and sings “I’m a Brass Band” with her dancers from Sweet Charity. Thrilling. Unfortunately, Mr. Cilento doesn’t pay so much attention to detail. When the dancers do a pirouette, they don’t all spin in unison, and in a jeté , they don’t land and stick in formation together.

What is also a distraction for the audience and takes away from the dancers is the constant brash Neon video design projections by Finn Ross on the back of the stage. It totally upstages the performers. Let’s also mention the costumes and their lack of imagination and tackiness; they don’t complement the dancers or their bodies.

Mr. Fosse left a myriad of dance moves and a lifetime of memories and magic for theatregoers, Mr. Cilento has failed to capture them in a 21st century reimagination of Dancin’. Maybe in a few years, a revival of the 1999 hit musical Fosse (a brilliant compendium of the works of Mr. Fosse) will be revived to recapture the magic and memories created by the legendary Bob Fosse.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published March 30, 2023
Reviewed at March 29, 2023 press performance.