On Your Toes in LA
On Your Toes in LA
#1On Your Toes in LA
Posted: 8/17/07 at 6:37pm
On Your Toes may be my favorite Rodgers and Hart show and this production, kicking off the Jason Alexander era, is one of the best things Reprise has ever done.
A fun show with a great score, fabulous dancing - and lots of it - and an ideal cast. Jeffrey Denman, playing Junior, is the best song and dance man around. He gets every laugh, every nuance, and his chemistry with the Frankie if Beth Malone is magical. Their rendition of show's hit song, "There's a Small Hotel" had the audience swooning.
Stephanie Powers and Dan Butler are also terrific as the Russian Ballet Company manager and impresario respectively. They get an interpolated song, "You Took Advantage of Me" that stopped the show. Powers looks and sounds great.
But, of course this is a show about dancing - tap, modern and, yes, ballet. Yvette Tucker, who just closed in Can Can up in Pasadena, is a prima ballerina with real acting chops. And what a dancer. The climactic "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" was a tour de force for her and Denman.
The title song, "On Your Toes" is an eight minute challenge match with tap dancers and ballet dancers squaring off to showcase their best moves. Wow, it was amazing. Congratulations to director Dan Mojica and especially choreographer Lee Martino. Fabulous work, guys.
Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!
