Roundabout Theatre Company will be above-the-title for a new
2009 Broadway production of
Bob Fosse's Dancin', the kinetic
revue of musical numbers created by the late master
choreographer.
The Tony Award
TM-nominated plotless show was a Broadway and
touring hit starting in 1978. After the coming revival's limited
run at Roundabout's Studio 54, which starts April 17, 2009, it
will go on a national tour in fall 2009. The cast will be
announced shortly.
Dancin', first billed as "a new musical entertainment," will be
directed by Tony Award winner Graciela Daniele (Ragtime, Once
on This Island) and will boast creative consultants Ann Reinking
(a Tony-nominated featured star of the original Dancin') and
Fosse's daughter Nicole Fosse. Opening at Studio 54 will be May
5, 2009.
The not-for-profit Roundabout is producing Dancin' in
association with Greg Young, Elaine Krauss, Dancap
Productions, and Richard Levi.
Choreography is credited to Bob Fosse (1927-1987), who won a
Best Choreography Tony for the original production. His original
choreography will be re-created by his career-long assistant
and dancer Kathryn Doby. (The significance of Fosse and Doby's
working relationship, as her bio points out, is apparent in his
Academy Award-nominated film "All That Jazz." In it, Doby
plays "Kathryn," assistant choreographer to Fosse's alter ego
Joe Gideon, played by Roy Scheider.) "This will be a limited engagement on Broadway," according to
the March 20 announcement. "A national tour of Dancin' will
open in the fall of 2009."
The design team will include original design team members
Peter Larkin (sets), Willa Kim (costumes) and Jules Fisher
(lights and projections). Fisher won a Best Lighting Design Tony
for Dancin'. Jonathan Deans will design sound.
According to Roundabout, Dancin' "is legendary directorchoreographer
Bob Fosse's classic tribute to the art of dance.
This production marks its return to the stage for the first time in
a generation. The essence of Fosse will take center stage in this
loving recreation of his original production. Fosse was one of the greatest and most influential figures in dance and theatre
history."
Fosse's stage directing or choreography credits include The
Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying, Chicago, Redhead, Little Me, Sweet
Charity, Pippin as well as TV specials and films such as "Cabaret," "Liza With a Z" and more. In 1987 he died of heart
disease in Washington, DC, at the age of 60, while rehearsing a
tour of his 20th-anniversary Sweet Charity revival.
Dancin' features an evening of dances set to an eclectic
collection of hit songs and instrumentals ("Sing, Sing, Sing,""Here You Come Again," "Crunchy Granola," "I Wanna Be a
Dancin' Man," "Mr. Bojangles" and many more). Some of the
pieces were re-created for the Broadway musical, Fosse, which
surfaced after his death — and won the Tony Award for Best
Musical.
The original production of Dancin' played 1,774 performances
and earned a Best Musical Tony nomination.
Dancin' will follow Roundabout's new production of Rodgers and
Hart's Pal Joey, which plays Studio 54 starting in fall 2008.
Nicole Fosse is the daughter of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon,
and decided to become a dancer at the age of 13. She received
her dance training from The School of American Ballet, North
Carolina School of the Arts, Nanette Charisse and Milton
Meyers.
Reinking is the actress, performer, director and choreographer
who won the Tony Award for choreography for Chicago (1997)
as well as the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle, Astaire,
NY Drama Critics and the Olivier Awards. Other credits include
director, co-choreographer for Fosse (1998 Tony Award, Best
Musical). She was Tony-nommed for her leading performance in
Dancin' and in Goodtime Charley. She's currently attached to
Kander and Ebb's The Visit, being staged this spring by Frank
Galati at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.
Tickets for Dancin' will be available in early 2009 by phone at
(212) 719-1300, online at
www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the
Studio 54 box office, 254 West 54th Street.