Review: ‘Tap Dancing Boy’ Is Still Out Of Time’s Step


When 8:30 p.m. is typical curtain time for Broadway musicals, the main character’s biggest number came in at 11 am—think “Rose’s Turn” in “Gypsy,” which crystallized the crisis and provided a round of applause.

Curtain for Wednesday night opening Encore! Revival of “Tap Dance Kid” It rose at 7:30 am, so the supposedly 11 o’clock count approached 10, but was still noticed to be the main event. That’s when Joshua Henry, who plays William Sheridan, the conservative father of a Black family thrown into chaos by a son who wants to be a dancer, is unleashed in a tirade that shatters the fabric of the rest of the show, he expressed angrily. and unbridled terror, the character’s disdain for what he sees as the performative Darkness of the faucet.

“I keep smiling even at the worst of times,” he snarls and fidgets monstrously. “I let the white man throw his pennies and dime at me.”

An astonishing performance at its best that is hard to watch. If only William was the main character, it might even make sense at the end of a lighter-hearted story. But it isn’t and isn’t, and when the biggest number comes in, it shouldn’t be.

Never being sure which members of the Sheridan family “The Tap Dance Kid” is about – its focus seems to change every 10 minutes – this is just one of the quirks that influenced the tonally surprising but sometimes compelling 1983 musical, Encores!, a two-year-old musical. Presenting until Sunday at New York City Center, as it returns to live production after the pandemic hiatus.

The main character, as the name suggests, is William’s 10-year-old son, Willie (Alexander Bello), someone who wants to dance despite his father’s prohibitions? Or is it Emma (Shahadi Wright Joseph), William’s 14-year-old daughter, who wants to be a lawyer like him but barely gets his attention because she’s a girl?

But what about William’s wife, Ginnie (Adrienne Walker), who must “tap dance” around her husband’s anger as she tries to make everything right for her children? Or Ginnie’s brother, Uncle Dipsey (Trevor Jackson), dancer and choreographer? Depending on your point of view, Dipsey either derails Willie by teaching him “fake-fake” or he upholds the joyous traditions of an art form that men like his late father Daddy Bates (DeWitt Fleming Jr.) have mastered. .

Yes, even a ghost gets two big numbers.

The musical was always a mess. original book, Charles Blackwellbased on the refreshingly dour young adult novel “Nobody’s Family Will ChangeBy Louise Fitzhugh of “Harriet the Spy” fame, it was never solved the problem of making peppy fun from such pessimistic material.

Music by Henry Krieger and Robert Lorick completely absorbs this tonal confusion, presenting songs that are either completely high-spirited (“Fabulous Feet”) or baldly boring (“Four Strikes Against Me”). There are times when you don’t know why someone is singing or dancing and sometimes you do but wish you hadn’t.

Encores! The production directed by Kenny Leon does not solve these problems. Lydia Diamond’s “concert adaptation” (although the production was heavily staged) makes some improvements, bringing the story of the 1983 production supposedly set in the “present time” to 1956, when it made more sense in some ways. . The family’s interpersonal and often gender-based conflicts—Emma wants to wear pants, Ginnie is uncomfortable under her husband’s authority—feel more appropriate early on, as does Krieger’s upbeat music, which is oddly retro for the “Dreamgirls” composer. Yet beautifully performed by the 24-track Encores! Orchestra conducted by Joseph Joubert.

But while further revising the jumbled pile of tunes used for the original production’s national tour, Diamond’s adaptation exacerbates the show’s scattering approach. (In the beginning, we get three consecutive founding numbers for Willie, Dipsey, and Emma, ​​so it makes up very little.) And the heavy cutting of the verbal scenes that are part of Encores! Summary is detrimental, especially for an intense but unfocused story. In one scene, after checking the schedule that Willie was on the bus, I noticed that the number was “Crosstown”. I thought you were in a dream drama.

Jared Grimes’ choreography is suitably gorgeous in ensemble numbers and display of varying faucet styles It’s fascinating to watch them transition from Daddy Bates to his kids and then, via Dipsey, to the more familiar Broadway versions. Jackson (with Tracee Beazer as his girlfriend, Carole) is a particularly exciting dancer and also an attractive singer. And Bello puts on a fascinating learning show in a Willies tradition that includes Alfonso Ribeiro, Dulé Hill and Savion Glover, and then quickly personalizes the steps that are part of his legacy.

I wish that was the focus of the story – or if there was a focal point. If musical numbers are sometimes difficult to grasp visually, the staging of book scenes was often undifferentiated. And on opening night at least, after just 11 days of rehearsal, the technical elements weren’t consistent yet. The tempo is oddly slow for a show about the excitement of dance.

This is partially included in the blurriness of the original material. And though Encores are one of those things! designed to show us how musicals felt when they first opened, good or bad, I’m not sure this production was a success, being the first production under the direction of new artistic director Lear deBessonet.

Maybe it shouldn’t. “The Tap Dance Kid” tells the story of an upper-middle-class Black family (“Don’t you buy all your clothes from the Upper East Side?” William asks his wife rhetorically) that did it a little ahead of its time. The fact that it’s the work of a mostly white creative team puts it a bit behind the times. Letting black artists take on a new look is the only sensible thing to do, other than leaving it as it is. Not every historical relic needs to be exhibited.

Tap Dance Child
At New York City Center, Manhattan, until February 6; nycitycenter.org. Working time: 2 hours 30 minutes.



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