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.
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.
“Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” is a highly energetic if uneven two hour exploration of the Fosse style — sultry hip rolls, sure, but also athletic leaps. The show has no overall plot, and a stage set that looks designed for a rock concert tour — big, black industrial-looking scaffolding and a back wall that serves as a video screen, mostly for flashes of color. But there are dozens of sometimes dazzling dances performed by twenty-two gorgeously talented and hard-working cast members. They don’t just dance — there’s a poem here, a monologue there, occasional brief dialogue, some competent singing – but boy do they dance! Five of the performers are making their Broadway debuts, but most are veterans of Broadway ensembles, several for twenty years or more, who for the first time are seeing their names in lights, literally — projected in huge letters behind them one by one as each takes their bows at the end.
| 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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