The Tap Dance Forecast in CT: RIDICULOUSLY SUNNY (both in the short- and long-term)!

Okay, Tap Fans, before Sunday evening, you gotta get to Playhouse on Park in West Hartford where the stop/time dance theatre is performing their latest show "Swing Set," a fast-paced joyous celebration of swing dancing and the music that inspired it.  Conceived, directed, and choreographed by Darlene Zoller (also one of the artistic directors of Playhouse on Park), the show uses every inch of space in the Playhouse...and

there's something especially invigorating in feeling the tapping in your seats as the dancers go up the aisles (Think "Sensurround" but without the silly disaster movie!) The performers, as always with Zoller-choreographed shows, dance hard and often, with the necessary breaks filled with singing. 

My favorite numbers were "Tuxedo Junction", "Sing Sing Sing,"  and "Sing You Sinners," although there wasn't a dance number that I didn't like.  The entire company earns their just applause with their committed and enthusiastic energy and remarkable skill.  A particular shout out to Ms. Zoller, who indeed practices what she teaches, i.e., tapping is all about the sound, and, when she was out on the floor, I could hear her tapping as clear as a bell -- no matter how many others were on the floor!  Never showing off, just showing how it's done.  

If I had two nits to pick, they'd be 1) bag the microphones for the singers since the space seems intimate enough for voices unplugged and a quieter pause may even be more refreshing, and 2) don't change the chorus of "I Got Rhythm" by replacing "my girl/guy" with "rhythm."  Maybe it was just "old fogey" me (which wouldn't be surprising), but I got distracted for a couple verses in trying to figure out why the song wasn't sounding right.

The show only runs through the matinee on Sunday, 1 May, so "It Won't Mean a Thing" if you don't "Pick up the Phone."   When you do, then, and only then, are you "Beginning to See the Light!"

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As far as the longer-range Tap forecast here in Connecticut, it's just as bright because you have until June 25th to catch My One and Only at the Goodspeed Opera House.  Billed a "Tap Dance Extravaganza," the show doesn't disappoint.  The clever script and the kind of inventive staging for which the Goodspeed is known, not to mention a s'wonderful Gershwin score, make this a great springtime show!

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And since the tap stars were out on opening night of Swing Set, I'd be remiss not to mention Josh Hilberman's upcoming show,  “Lois’ Tap Lane” All-Star Tap and Jazz Salute, on Friday, May 13, at 8pm at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA.

Darlene Zoller's "My Show": The Review

With my older daughter, I attended the opening night of Darlene Zoller and the stop/time dance theatre's production of My Show: A Choreographer's Story at the under-new-management Playhouse on Park in West Hartford.

This dancing autobiography -- with the narrator's part of Darlene played by Gretchen Fountain -- was fine theatre throughout: fast-paced and energetic, funny and touching, colorful, and lots and lots of dancing of every stripe. (Let me note that, since Ms. Zoller is my tap teacher, I was a wee bit disappointed that there weren't a couple more tap numbers, but her treatment of Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing" toward the end of the first act made it worth the wait! I also was hoping for a little more of Darlene herself, but I assume that, if it's hard to direct oneself in a film, it must be really hard to do so in a live dance extravaganza. Not to mention her being on a walker just a few short weeks ago.)

A look back at her life and career, My Show covers all the dance fads and television shows we've lived through -- American Bandstand, Hullabaloo, and, yes, even Solid Gold... with choreography that shows how much dancing has infused her life. While the entire show investigates the battle we face (or, should I say, the delicate navigations we must perform) between the deluded(?) image we have of ourselves and the real possibilities available to us, a number like "Big Time" drives the point home: what we want to happen, what we try to make happen, but, then again what really happens -- and how, surprisingly, we end up happy (and successful and fulfilled) nonetheless.

A talented troupe, including stand-out performances by Constance Kollmorgen, Mallory Cunningham, and Hillary Ekwell and yeoman's work by Rick Fountain and two drop-dead funny cameos by Michael Morgan, Ms. Zoller had the dancers in constant motion with all accessible at every angle for the audience sitting on three sides of the stage.

There's no doubt in my mind that better music elicits better choreography... so it should come as no surprise that "Lotta Livin' to Do," "Sing Sing Sing," "All that Jazz," and a Damn Yankees medley made for far better pieces than "Dance," "To Where You Are," and even "Magic to Do."

My quibbles are few (and perhaps idiosyncratic): each of the vocal numbers began with the singers hard to hear but luckily the sound balance got better as the song progressed; why no tapping on "Sisters" (?!); and there's just never a good time to play a Josh Groban song.

A special mention for 6-year-old Madison Righi, whose performance of "Brand New Baby" at the opening of the show couldn't have set a better mood and must have made everyone else have to try even harder. (What's the old saying about following children and dogs?)

In Playhouse on Park, stop/time dance has found a home, and last night's full house for Ms. Zoller's My Show suggests a long and happy life ahead.

Clearly this choreographer's story still has several acts to go...

Darlene Zoller's "My Show"

This is the latest show by my tap dance instructor, Darlene Zoller, and her troupe, stop/time dance theatre.

She's a wonderful dancer and choreographer -- and a martyr of a dance instructor (with yours truly's poor physical skills and even poorer sense of rhythm as her primary torments).

I'll be giving away a pair of tickets on my radio show next Tuesday, 23 June, between 8 and 9 AM. Listen to WFCS 107.7 fm or on-line at www.live365.com/stations/wfcs to win! (Of course, buying a ticket or two or three is always an option, too.)