Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 9:41AM by Dancin' Dan
From the time Rebecca Bunch began to speak
The critics said her show was so unique
Now I'm not saying that's a guarantee
But Lord knows with awards that it should be
Her best friends, her boyfriends, her mom and her boss
They've all endured the same ignominy
The writers, directors, the set and dress makers
Not one of them has been up for an Emmy!
Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 6:00PM by Dancin' Dan
Stu is a nice guy. Far too much of a nice guy, in fact. After he clocks out from his job working a big-box sports store, he cleans his car and clocks in to Uber, enduring all the assholes and drunks that use the car service in and around Los Angeles. He does this to get the money to help his best friend Becca open an all-women spin center, because he's also hopelessly in love with her. So after a rash of particularly bad (and mostly unfair) Uber reviews puts his precious star rating in jeopardy, and taciturn cop Vic Manning gets in his car, Stu is willing to do just about anything to make sure he gets a five-star rating. The problem is, Vic is reeling from the death of his partner, has just gotten a lead on his killer, and just had Lasik eye surgery. He can't see, and needs someone to drive him. Let the sparks - and laughs - fly.
Yes, the plot of Stuber is pretty boilerplate buddy comedy stuff. But it gains a lot from its casting...
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 12:10AM by Dancin' Dan
Adapting a non-musical film to a stage musical is always a dicey proposition. Leave the story exactly as is and just add songs, and you risk the show feeling rote and uninteresting. Change the story so that it fits a musical structure better, and you may alienate fans of the source material. This Broadway season has practically been a study in how to adapt a film to a musical. We’ve already talked about Tootsie, but this season saw three other screen-to-stage adaptations of varying levels of quality: Beetlejuice, King Kong, and Pretty Woman: The Musical. Each has proven divisive in varying ways, and they had much different degrees of success with the Tony nominations. I’ve recently seen two of them, and what one lacks, the other has in spades...
Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 12:08AM 
by Dancin' Dan
Figures that the episode randomly assigned to the resident dance expert of Team Experience is the only episode of Fosse/Verdon so far that hasn’t had even the tiniest bit of dancing in it. I seem to be enjoying the show more than some of the rest of the team, and i've particularly marveled at the series’ recreations of some of Fosse’s best known pieces, some of which I have had the good fortune to dance myself. One of the choreographers who taught me told our ensemble that most of Fosse’s choreography is defined by tension - you must always be holding tension in your body somewhere in order to make it look and feel right. To that end, when we were dancing movements that were supposed to be more fluid, she told us to imagine that we were dancing through peanut butter. It’s an image that I now always associate with Fosse’s work, and I found it particularly apt for this episode. Even though there’s no dancing, there’s plenty of tension. Every character looks like they’re moving through peanut butter, pushing and straining to get what they want.
Bob Fosse had his unprecedented year of glory, and ended up in the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic for his troubles...
Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 9:46AM by Dancin' Dan
When the history of Peak TV is written, there better be a whole chapter devoted to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. That Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom's musical comedy managed to last four seasons on The CW is amazing enough. But doing so with a diverse cast, while constantly pushing the boundaries of what network television would allow to be broadcast in prime time, taking anti-feminist tropes and twisting them around until they become feminist, and spotlighting mental health issues in a sensitive, impactful way is a miracle.
On Friday night, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend aired its series finale. Magically, the show was able to end on its own terms, giving us the full four-season arc its creators had always envisioned. And what an arc it's been [SPOILERS AHEAD]...
