curtain call

Clap your jazz hands — ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin” celebrates a Broadway icon with a queer twist

By · Updated on January 26, 2024
The cast of Bob Fosse's Dancin'
The cast of ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin.’ Photo by Julieta Cervantes

The Rundown

Fosse-obsessed theatergoers now have two options to celebrate the late eight-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer. Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ returns to Broadway for the first time in 30 years, joining the long-running revival of Chicago.

Directed and staged by Wayne Cilento, who appeared in the original production, the revival faithfully reproduces some of Fosse’s most iconic works, including “Reflections of an Old Dancer” (set to “Mr. Bojangles”), “Benny’s Number,” and “Big Deal” with a modern take that also celebrates queer identity.

No Tea, No Shade

The cast of ''Bob Fosse's Dancin'
The cast of ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin’.’ Photo by Julieta Cervantes

The Tony Awards, regretfully, have never acknowledged the hard-working ensembles that contribute to the art form of musical theater. Imagine shows like The Pajama Game, Pippin, and Sweet Charity without their iconic dance moments.

Fosse began dancing at age nine and grew up during the Golden Age of musical theater, making his Broadway debut in the short-lived Dance Me a Song (1950), but he quickly turned to choreography and created an entirely new dance vocabulary rooted in classical technique but pushing the form’s boundaries with hip rolls, sunbursts, broken dolls, and other unique movements.

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ begins with a prologue (delivered by the show’s most powerful triple-threat Manuel Herrera) in which the audience is told they’ll be watching a plotless musical. The celebration of dance, in which “dancers are instruments,” moves swiftly amid scenic designer Robert Brill’s scaffolding, funky video design by Finn Ross, and richly saturated lighting by David Grill. But it’s Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung’s costume designs in ever-changing silhouettes and palettes (including Fosse’s signature bowler hat and dangling cigarette) that contemporize and elevate familiar melodies like “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries” into modern social and political commentaries.

Unlike 1999’s Fosse, a three-act musical revue, Dancin’ includes only phrases from some of the choreographer’s most well-known musicals like Sweet Charity’s “Big Spender” and the Manson Trio from Pippin. For those familiar with these iconic works, the tease is almost unbearable were it not for the company’s gravity-defying endurance and expression. In some ways, without the burden of a plot, Fosse pushed his own boundaries even further. Known for using body isolation, Fosse demanded precision — a rolled shoulder, the flick of a foot, or a curling wrist could unexpectedly give way to tour en l’airs, jetés, and dizzying pirouettes (or in non-dance speak, jumps, leaps, and spins).

The company only loses its footing in the occasional scripted segments, which feel earnest and unnecessary. But when Dancin’ dances, it’s unstoppable.

Let’s Have a Moment

Kolton Krause in Bob Fosse's Dancin'
Kolton Krouse in ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin’.’ Photo by Julieta Cervantes

Fosse didn’t shy away from exploring sexual expression in his work (Pippin’s famous orgy scene among them), but gender expression had rarely shattered Broadway’s glass ceiling before his death in 1987. Dancin’ boasts eight dancers who proudly identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and representation is visible both onstage and off.

Kolton Krouse — gorgeously costumed by Bartelme and Jung — delivers the pure embodiment of nonbinary joy throughout their performance, including a breathtaking solo in Act I’s finale, “Big City Mine,” and later as the Trumpet Solo in “Benny’s Number.”

Drag bans and anti-trans legislation continue to infiltrate our communities, but Krouse, supported by a commercial theater venture and a creative team that celebrates their authentic self, proves that we’re not going anywhere.

The Last Word

The cast of Bob Fosse's Dancin'
The cast of ‘Bob Fosse’s Dancin.’ Photo by Julieta Cervantes

“You kind of fall into the very specific part of Bob,” director Cilento told Broadway News. “The sexy part, the still part, the seductive. The finger, the shoulder, the eye. But then there’s this explosive part of Bob Fosse that people don’t see. I want to get the essence of him.”

Cilento delivers on his promise. His staging faithfully pays homage to the choreographer’s work through a relevant lens for a new generation. For anyone looking to tap their toes and clap their jazz hands at a Broadway show, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ delivers.

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ plays on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre.

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