DAMES AT SEA is a tap-happy celebration of the golden era of movie musicals with a heart as big as the ocean! Directed and choreographed by the three-time Tony Award-nominated choreographer Randy Skinner (42nd Street, Irving Berlin's White Christmas), this gem of a show has been reimagined for the bright lights of Broadway and taken to glamorous and spectacular new heights! Featuring rollicking tap dancing, love at first sight, joyful music and a boatload of laughs, this glittering musical extravaganza has everything you need for an unforgettable night at the theatre.
By Broadway standards, the intimate Helen Hayes theatre might be considered the Main Stem's version of an eight foot by eight foot platform, so Dames at Sea's premiere Broadway production is also a tiny affair featuring six actors with more or less equal-sized roles. Anna Louizos' fine set changes at intermission, but stays just the way it is for each of the two acts. There are no dark moods in Ken Billington and Jason Kantrowitz lighting and director/choreographerRandy Skinner's staging plays out to the house. Under such conditions, actors have no production values to cling to.Dames at Sea offers only one special effect. Talent. Lots of it. And it's right smack in the middle of the stage for all to clearly see.
The revival of Dames At Sea that opened on Broadway Thursday night is a lot of fun and a tribute to the city's inexhaustible pool of inexhaustible talent, if not actual stars. In the District's smallest house, recently acquired by the Second Stage nonprofit company but not yet rehabbed, the fit is just right for Anna Louizos' humorous sets and the company of six, which includes a dazzling tapper named Eloise Kropp as Ruby, the ingenue. She's nicely partnered by Cary Tedder as the sailor who falls for Ruby. Randy Skinner is the director and choreographer, and by the end of the show you'll be praying that these hoofers have shock absorbers for joints, because the pounding is relentless (and for a tapdance lover like me, exhilarating)
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