Cabaret Scenes Theatre Review

Whether called a “dance-ical,” a “dance musical,” or “an evening of dance,” Come Fly Away at the Marquis Theatre is certainly seductive with the audacious sound of Frank Sinatra and the visual intensity of Twyla Tharp’s powerhouse dancers. By intermission, you are catching your breath from the magnetic seesaw of romance and danger, a combo of the volatile Chairman of the Board and the thorny dance genius Twyla Tharp. When both are 18-carat, who needs a story?

Unlike the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel partnership, Movin’ Out, Come Fly Away has no plot. It takes place in a stylish retro nightclub designed by James Youmans, with Donald Holder’s moody lighting. The thirty-four recorded Sinatra songs are prime examples of the era when “Ol’ Blue Eyes” was back on top again with talents like Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti—those musicians whose arrangements never die. Onstage is a nineteen-piece band led by Russ Kassoff and featuring jazz canary Hilary Gardner to warble a few tunes and a duet with Sinatra. It is a smooth coup by sound designer Peter McBoyle.

Four couples ultimately take the focus. In flowing vignettes, they amble in, eyeball each other, join bodies and heat up, twirling and lifting, soaring across the stage. Acrobatic/ballet/ballroom/jazz equals energy, fluidly moving as couples step up and out and others dance in. Director/choreographer Tharp keeps the momentum alive with flights and fights, slapstick and pratfalls, making dance floor love and war, breakups and happy endings. Slow dances are anything but. They are vehicles for more manipulative acrobatics.

Star of Movin’ Out, John Selya, cool and world-weary, somewhat like the later Sinatra, finds his match in sleek, manipulative Holley Farmer in “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” They study each other with smooth interest. Robust and confident, he tosses her around a few times, but at the end, it is he who is at her feet. In his solo, “September of My Years,” Selya shines, reflecting a palpable loneliness and the inevitable passing of time.

Also from Movin’ Out, Keith Roberts, with a look of street sexiness, joins lean, mean Karine Plantadit, a sizzling hot wire from Cameroon, lightning in a lamé mini. Like a spider with a fly, she sets her sights on Roberts in "Fly Me to the Moon" and Roberts is caught in her web. Or is she caught in his? Outstanding is their feral tug-of-war for power in "That's Life": “up and down and over and out,” building in volatility and ending in Plantadit’s sudden breathtaking flight into Roberts’s arms.

The mood switches when a waiter, Charlie Neshyba-Hodges, stumbling over his own feet but later soaring in back flips and acrobatic turns, approaches shy newcomer Laura Mead and they agree to try a few steps together, "Nice ‘n’ Easy." The fourth couple is Rika Okamoto and Matthew Stockwell Dibble who are winning with “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby.”

The vivacity ebbs but Tharp’s terpsichorean intensity continues in the second act. By then, everyone is juiced, clothes are shed, Okamoto and Dibble’s graceful performance to Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave” reflects the steamy mood. Still a panther-like stage presence, Plantadit prowls with the ensemble men in “Lean Baby” and returns to Roberts for a regret-tinged “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).”

Katherine Roth’s eye-popping costumes add to the characterizations and the era, although in this performance, Selya almost burst through the back of his trousers. “And now the end is near…” the women have all changed into gowns of burnished gold to close with “My Way” and the crowd-pleasing, “(Theme from) New York, New York.” The disco ball recedes into the rafters. The club is closed. The dance is ended. It’s been a gas.

(Pictured: Keith Roberts and Karine Plantadit. Photo by Joan Marcus)

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
March 31, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Come Fly Away Marquis Theatre New York, NY
Whether called a “dance-ical,” a “dance musical,” or “an evening of dance,” Come Fly Away at the Marquis Theatre is certainly seductive with the audacious sound of Frank Sinatra and the visual intensity of Twyla Tharp’s powerhouse dancers. By intermission, you are catching your breath from the magnetic seesaw of romance and danger, a combo of the volatile Chairman of the Board and the thorny dance genius Twyla Tharp. When both are 18-carat, who needs a story? Unlike the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel partnership, Movin’ Out, Come Fly Away has no plot. It takes place in a stylish retro nightclub designed by James Youmans, with Donald Holder’s moody lighting. The thirty-four recorded Sinatra songs are prime examples of the era when “Ol’ Blue Eyes” was back on top again with talents like Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti—those musicians whose arrangements never die. Onstage is a nineteen-piece band led by Russ Kassoff and featuring jazz canary Hilary Gardner to warble a few tunes and a duet with Sinatra. It is a smooth coup by sound designer Peter McBoyle. Four couples ultimately take the focus. In flowing vignettes, they amble in, eyeball each other, join bodies and heat up, twirling and lifting, soaring across the stage. Acrobatic/ballet/ballroom/jazz equals energy, fluidly moving as couples step up and out and others dance in. Director/choreographer Tharp keeps the momentum alive with flights and fights, slapstick and pratfalls, making dance floor love and war, breakups and happy endings. Slow dances are anything but. They are vehicles for more manipulative acrobatics. Star of Movin’ Out, John Selya, cool and world-weary, somewhat like the later Sinatra, finds his match in sleek, manipulative Holley Farmer in “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” They study each other with smooth interest. Robust and confident, he tosses her around a few times, but at the end, it is he who is at her feet. In his solo, “September of My Years,” Selya shines, reflecting a palpable loneliness and the inevitable passing of time. Also from Movin’ Out, Keith Roberts, with a look of street sexiness, joins lean, mean Karine Plantadit, a sizzling hot wire from Cameroon, lightning in a lamé mini. Like a spider with a fly, she sets her sights on Roberts in "Fly Me to the Moon" and Roberts is caught in her web. Or is she caught in his? Outstanding is their feral tug-of-war for power in "That's Life": “up and down and over and out,” building in volatility and ending in Plantadit’s sudden breathtaking flight into Roberts’s arms. The mood switches when a waiter, Charlie Neshyba-Hodges, stumbling over his own feet but later soaring in back flips and acrobatic turns, approaches shy newcomer Laura Mead and they agree to try a few steps together, "Nice ‘n’ Easy." The fourth couple is Rika Okamoto and Matthew Stockwell Dibble who are winning with “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby.” The vivacity ebbs but Tharp’s terpsichorean intensity continues in the second act. By then, everyone is juiced, clothes are shed, Okamoto and Dibble’s graceful performance to Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave” reflects the steamy mood. Still a panther-like stage presence, Plantadit prowls with the ensemble men in “Lean Baby” and returns to Roberts for a regret-tinged “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).” Katherine Roth’s eye-popping costumes add to the characterizations and the era, although in this performance, Selya almost burst through the back of his trousers. “And now the end is near…” the women have all changed into gowns of burnished gold to close with “My Way” and the crowd-pleasing, “(Theme from) New York, New York.” The disco ball recedes into the rafters. The club is closed. The dance is ended. It’s been a gas. (Pictured: Keith Roberts and Karine Plantadit. Photo by Joan Marcus) Elizabeth Ahlfors Cabaret Scenes March 31, 2010 www.cabaretscenes.org

Come Fly Away

Marquis Theatre New York, NY

Marquis Theatre
New York, NY