Dames at Sea
6 / 10
Dames at Sea was launched in 1966 at the downtown coffeehouse Caffe Cino, where its affectionate send-up of 1930s movie musicals tapped -- or, rather, tap-danced -- into nostalgia for the busily silly spectacles of yesteryear. Now it's on Broadway, where it lands like a harmless piece of wet fluff. The first 20 minutes of wide-eyed antics are cute; then your mind starts to wander. Dames at Sea's mild pastiche...is passable but passé -- imagine a revival, half a century from now, of a Fringe show about the '80s -- and it's presented with tongue so far in cheek that it can't say much at all. The cast of six works hard to sell it, though...Director-choreographer Randy Skinner gives them furiously fast tap numbers to perform, as though they were pumping invisible air pedals to keep the show from deflating. In the end, no such luck: pfffffft.
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