BWW Reviews: DANCING LESSONS at TheaterWorks

She's a Broadway dancer who's sustained a devastating injury and may never dance again. He's a brilliant but autistic professor with an extreme aversion to touch. What brings them together? He's got to learn enough dance moves to survive an upcoming gala where he's the honoree.

This is the jumping off point for Mark St. Germain's new play DANCING LESSONS, running at Hartford's intimate TheaterWorks through March 6. If the set up seems a little pat, it is: but the characters are so specifically drawn, and the work of the actors sufficiently brave, that the whole makes for a satisfying evening. It's funny and touching, both.

Paige Davis, best known as the star of TV's TRADING SPACES, plays Senga, the dancer with more than one big dilemma, in her TheaterWorks debut. Fiercely independent, she's currently trying to stave off self-pity and decide on her next move. Andrew Benator (an audience favorite at TheaterWorks) plays the professor who has Asperger's with unrelenting drive and an array of agonizingly awkward physical tics. Unable to tell social lies himself, he is also not taken in by them, so his interpersonal ineptness is offset by penetrating insight. They are a combustible pair.

Playwright St. Germain has written a quirky romantic comedy that resists the easy outcome, though it does telescope what might well have taken lots of time into a few interactions. He's dabbled with theatricalizing the kind of technology use that is ubiquitous in modern life, though his plot doesn't require him to explore this vein as thoroughly as, say, Quiara Alegria Hudes does in WATER BY THE SPOONFUL. As is true in the current Broadway hit THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME, which also centers on an autistic character, he's created a bravado acting challenge for Benator, who meets it fully. That's a treat to witness. And, I suspect, St. Germain has educated not only his characters about how much variance is included in the terms 'autistic' and 'neurotypical', but also many in the audience. I was delighted by a sweet use of imagination and theatricality late in the play, which I can't say more about with spoiling it for potential audience members.

Director Julianne Boyd first mounted this show last summer in its world premiere at the Barrington Stage Company, where she is both Founder and Artistic Director. With the help of set designer Brian Prather, she's adapted it well to TheaterWorks' tiny space. Meant for adults and older teens, the show plays in 80 minutes with no intermission and includes partial nudity. It's been extended one week, due to popularity with local audiences.

Photo by Lenny Nagler.