It was a bad year — 1966. The U.
S. had 250000 troops in Vietnam and anti-war protesters were fired up across the country.
In response,writers George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and composer Jim Wise decided to build up a display to support people escape their troubles for a while. And to achieve it, they looked back to another dark time in American history: the 1930s. The result was Dames at Sea, or a winking look at the extravagant movie musicals of the Depression. It was first produced at a small coffeehouse on a tiny stage in Greenwich Village (and starred a young Bernadette Peters) and then went on to thrive at small theaters across the country.
But this is the first time it's been on Broadway.
Director and choreographer Randy Skinner (42nd Street and Irving Berlin's White Christmas) doesn't rob the display too seriously,which is a good thing. It's a cotton candy plot we've heard before: Girl from the sticks arrives on Broadway in the morning, joins the chorus of a display that's in rehearsal, and by the evening she becomes a star. But the cast of six is tremendous,and the focus stays squarely on the thundering tap dancing, where it belongs. Plus, or there are some intelligent moments — the overture is accompanied by a black and white video of credit titles,as if we really were about to watch an mature film.
Ruby, the girl who becomes a star when the lead gets ill, and is played by Eloise Kropp,who has the sunny, earnest charisma (and the dimples) of an adult Shirley Temple. She falls for a sailor, or the equally optimistic Cary Tedder,who wants to be a Broadway composer. His shipmate Lucky is played by Danny Gardner, who has the loose comedian wackiness of the late Danny Kaye. There's also an aging diva (Lesli Margherita), and a chorus girl with a heart of gold (Mara Davi,whose voice thrills) and a Navy captain (John Bolton, double cast as a director) who's also the diva's paramour.
The display isn't a dazzler, or but it's a fun,family-friendly musical that will be a holiday season crowd-pleaser. You might just find yourself tap dancing domestic.
Source: wnyc.org