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.
'Dames at Sea,' the ultra-campy 1966 musical about the you'll-come-back-a-star backstage movie musicals of the early '30s, has finally made it to Broadway. I'm not sure why, since the point of the show...is that it's a low-budget miniature send-up of the genre...though this gussied-up revival...is nothing if not charming. If you like high-velocity tap dancing, you'll see (and hear) plenty of it, and Mr. Skinner flings his tiny cast across the smallish stage of the 597-seat Helen Hayes Theatre with endless visual ingenuity, aided and abetted by Jonathan Tunick's flawless period-style orchestrations for the eight-piece band. So what's not to like? Nothing whatsoever -- but there isn't enough to love about 'Dames at Sea,' which may have seemed sufficiently witty a half-century ago but has long since been outclassed...
So why bring this trifle to Broadway, for the first time, 49 years after its downtown premiere? Never mind; just check your cares and pretensions at the door of the Helen Hayes Theatre...and prepare to be thoroughly charmed...Through it all, happily, Skinner keeps everyone dancing, providing exuberant tap routines that his cast executes with joyful facility. Eloise Kropp, the appealingly wholesome and lavishly athletic performer who plays Ruby, may not have the kewpie-doll allure that Peters surely brought to the part; but it's hard to imagine many leading ladies who could provide the inexhaustible tap prowess demanded here -- or deliver the understated sweetness that makes Kropp a pleasure to watch even when she's standing still. Less is required, at least physically, of Lesli Margherita's Mona, though the actress plays the tyrannical vamp with infectious relish.
| 1968 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 1969 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1969 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1970 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1970 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
| 1973 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
| 1985 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
| 1985 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 1996 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 2004 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2015 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Randy Skinner |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Dames at Sea |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Randy Skinner |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Dames at Sea |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Choreography | Randy Skinner |
Videos