I was EXTREMELY fortunate to have a former colleague ask me if I'd like to attend the final dress rehearsal of Encores! latest production, Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes. I've never seen On Your Toes and I've never listened to the cast album. I did, however, already know that ballet figures prominently in the plot, and that the revered George Balanchine had done the original choreography. I've also seen clips of the famous ballet from the show, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," so I was pretty excited walking into City Center. Seriously. Ballet and theater, in the same piece. Much happiness in my world.
And I was NOT disappointed! I had a smile on my face the entire evening - the show is just a dainty little confection of fun and the dancing is straight-up fantastic. Before the show started, Jack Viertel, the artistic director of Encores!, came out for a little curtain speech, thanking all the artists who made the production possible. He also said that he always warns the dress rehearsal audience that they may have to stop at some point during the evening, but for this show, he was SURE they'd probably have to stop! He said it was the biggest production they've done, because of all the dance, and they had only stopped rehearsing a few hours before curtain. So we were prepared for anything. In the end, they only had to stop once, during a particularly involved dance number. But no one in the audience was disappointed - that only meant we got to see that amazing number TWICE! Bonus! : )
On Your Toes is a mix of vaudeville and ballet, with plenty of clever Rodgers and Hart songs, and it tells the story of Junior, once part of a family vaudeville dance team, now a music instructor, who gets involved with a Russian ballet company. When the company agrees to do a 'jazz ballet' that one of Junior's students composed, Junior gets mixed up with Vera, the Russian prima ballerina star of the ballet company. Of course, all sorts of mayhem ensues and then we get "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." The End. Whew. What a silly synopsis. Sorry.
The first number, "Two-a-Day for Keith" is a prologue of sorts, with Junior as a youngster, dancing in vaudeville with his parents. And who play his parents, you ask? Only Karen Ziemba and Randy Skinner, two of the best dancers EVER! With young Dalton Harrod as young Junior, they start the show off with a bang. I believe I've mentioned before how much I love me some tap dancing, and these three were fantastic. Loved loved loved it. It was a wonderful way to begin the show.
Fast-forward fifteen years, and now we see Junior as a university instructor. He flirts with a cute co-ed songwriter and tries to hide that he was once a hoofer. But, of course, he can't hide it forever. So the hoofing and the ballet and the singing all mish mash together into a really adorable piece of theater.
The number they had to do twice was the title song - oh.my.god., it was AMAZING!!! It was tap AND ballet! TOGETHER! If there had been puppets involved, I may have spontaneously combusted with happiness!! Really, Warren Carlyle has choreographed this number brilliantly. The audience was screaming with delight throughout - even the school kids upstairs were excited by the dancing! That is always a good thing. I was in raptures.
Irina Dvorovenko, from ABT (thank you very much), played Vera and she was delightful. She had terrific comic timing and was just enchanting. Naturally, her ballet dancing was exquisite. She has gorgeous arms. Joaquin De Luz, who used to perform with ABT but is now with New York City Ballet, was also really fun. He had great timing, too, though he occasionally forgot to pause for his laughs. And his dancing was sublime. Walter Bobbie was a hoot as the Russian impresario and Christine Baranski was solid as the doyenne of the ballet company. Though, I must admit, her diction when she sang her solos was off and I found it hard to understand her lyrics. But, of course, her comic timing in the book scenes is sublime and she had quite a few humdingers.
Our ingenues were, of course, adorable, and Shonn Wiley as Junior was quite a hoofer. He reminded me of Bobby Van, which is a compliment, if you didn't know. The ladies in front of us thought he was like Danny Kaye. I don't know if I'd go THAT far, but he was charming and adorable. His comic dancing in the "Princesse Zenobia Ballet" was a riot and his jazz ballet in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was also terrific.
Hearing all that glorious Richard Rodgers music played by the fantastic Encores! orchestra was such a treat, especially hearing "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." I will say that "Slaughter" seemed a bit tentative, but it was still quite fine. The extension that Irina gets - wow! I'm sure that as they run the show more and more, it will play like gangbusters. You could just kind of tell they were still trying to get up to speed.
Clearly, I LOVED On Your Toes. I wish I could go see it again - the dancing was so amazing and it was just so fun. I was telling the gent sitting next to me that it was lovely to get to see (and hear) a 30s musical presented as is. No snarky self-aware nonsense, just the musical as it was meant to be seen. Bravo.
Seat neighbor-wise, I was sitting amongst a group of my former colleague's pals. They were very interested in "who" was in attendance (as in STARS). I think they were a little disappointed in the star quotient. Of course, I started squealing as ABT company members strolled in to watch their chum, Irina. The ladies were very impressed with my rattling off the dancers' names. I was so glad to have come in handy for once. :)
Seriously. Do yourself a favor - go buy a ticket for On Your Toes right now. You'll be ever so glad you did.
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