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' is a technicolor, tap dance-filled tribute to the movie musicals of the 1930s. It's delightful, and it doesn't take itself seriously for a minute...After an evening with the 'Dames' ensemble of dancers and singers, directed and choreographed by Encores! vet Randy Skinner -- he also worked on the 2001 revival of '42nd Street' -- you will surely agree. It works...'Dames at Sea' opens with Margherita in a flashy, affectionate and snark-free tribute to Wall Street. With that as a bar, it falls to Margherita to set a tone of ironic distance to everything that comes after...Six actors do all the work. 'Dames at Sea' is a small-scale musical, crammed into Broadway's teensiest theater, but with the gumption of a mighty battleship.
Whether there's an audience for this effusive salute to a kitschy, corny genre that most Broadway theatergoers have either forgotten or never knew remains an open question...The musical is right in the wheelhouse of director-choreographer Randy Skinner, who never met a nostalgic dance interlude he didn't like...The central role of the cute ingenue might have benefited from a more captivating presence -- the fresh-faced Kropp is no Peters, her dance ability outweighing her tentative acting -- and Tedder and Gardner are perhaps too interchangeable. But Skinner has assembled a likeable cast that fits the material, both in terms of the stock types they're playing and the kind of screen stars associated with them...The show's over-the-top scene-stealer...is Margherita...Her Mona is classic Brooklyn trash reinvented as a grand thespian, turning on a dime from high melodrama to an ingratiating megawatt smile.
| 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 |
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