Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is Fosse’s full-throated, full-bodied celebration of the art form he loved, practiced, and changed forever. Transformed by director Wayne Cilento for 21st-century audiences, Dancin’ brims with Fosse’s warmth, emotion, color, and endlessly influential style rarely seen in modern interpretations of his work. Featuring an eclectic score that spans a multitude of musical genres and an extraordinary cast of Broadway’s most accomplished dancers, Dancin’ delivers the quintessential Broadway experience for Fosse fans and first-timers alike. You’ve never seen Dancin’ like this.
Dancin’ is mostly spectacular, until it suddenly isn’t—before ramping itself up again for the finale. An audience member behind me whooped through the first act and into the bravura first number of the second. And then their whoops hushed as the show dialed itself down. The difference in energy, not just on stage but in the theater, was stark; it was as if someone had stuck a pin in a balloon.
In the often-thrilling, often-frustrating revival of the 1978 dancical, which reincarnates the spirit and choreography of Bob Fosse, the two possibilities are much the same. Substantially revamped and restaged by Wayne Cilento, a standout in the original production, this “Dancin’” argues that Fosse’s genius was constrained by the pedestrian storytelling of musical theater, with its “villains,” “baritone heroes” and “Christmas trees.” True Fosseism, it seems, can fully thrive only in the abstract, Olympian realms of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
1978 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1979 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
1983 | West End |
London Production West End |
2023 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design of a Musical | David Grill |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Bob Fosse's Dancin' |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical | Bob Fosse's Dancin' |
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