©Broadway Beat
Broadway Snap-shot
Dec. 21, 1999


SWING!
by Russell Bouthiller

Step, turn, kick and twirl! Broadway has another nostalgic review that's more than enough to make your suit zoot. Grab your partner and head on over to the St. James Theatre to celebrate the resurgence of a uniquely American dance sensation set to the pedigreed sounds of Duke Ellington, Hoagie Carmichael, Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hart and more.

The "It" girl was not. The Castle Walk came crumbling down. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. So goes that zany credo of the mid 30s to the mid 40s, when our now subdued, retiring parents and grandparents went out to party. The big band sound was all the rage when Aunt Fanny had moxy and radio was king. Bandleaders were over the moon, the superstars of their day. Names such as Guy Lombardo, the Dorsey Brothers, the Casa Loma Orchestra and that "Pied Piper of Swing," Benny Goodman played to packed dance halls from here to Corpus Christi. Instrumentalists Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Count Basie became household names and headline fodder. It took a war to quiet them down. Maybe even some rock and roll. But, Swing! is the thing on the Great White Way and if the production team has the same luck they enjoyed with Smokey Joe's Cafe, this show may be here for quite some time.

Herding an amazing cast of limber-limbed hoofers and throaty songsters are Ann Hampton Callaway, well known among the cabaret cognoscenti, and Everett Bradley, the multi-instrumentalist maestro whose percussive bent beat it out in STOMP. Making her Broadway debut, the lithe Miss Callaway delivers a stylish presence with "Stompin' at the Savoy" and a graceful ease in the "All of Me/I Won't Dance" duet with Bradley. The two are at their best in the delightful rendition of "Bli-Blip," a scintillating study in scat by Duke Ellington and Sid Kuller. As an added perk, Callaway and Bradley add a few of their own compositions, which rest nicely along side this rostrum of swing classics.

Standing out among the washes of aural longing is Laura Benanti, who recently appeared with Richard Chamberlain in the revival of The Sound of Music. Miss Benanti lets the dulcet tones flow with her cruise down "Cry Me a River," richly accompanied by a suggestive slide trombone. Broadway veteran Michael Gruber belts one out with his down-home ditty "Boogie Woogie Country" and pairs up nicely with Casey MacGill in his composition of "Rhythm." Strumming his ukulele MacGill blows off that cool remove one links to this bygone era. His Gotham City Gates, one of the leading jazz and swing groups this side of the Wabash, serve up sweet relish in the background.

But, it's the dancers who really raise the temperature in Swing!. Clipped, happy and a few inches off the ground, these kids keep the joint jumpin.' Under the able choreography of Lynn Taylor-Corbett, their talents and energy come together to form a well-oiled machine. With a combination of balletic grace and gymnastic precision, one is left spinning at their eye-popping frolics. International Lindy champs Ryan Francois (who also serves as associate choreographer) and Jenny Thomas churn up a bouncy froth with their eggbeater antics. Indeed, the entire company deserves honorable mention. There's no shortage of hard work on stage at the St. James.

Swing! is just the latest entry in a season full of potent dance. With the advent of Susan Stroman's sensuous strokes in Contact and Kathleen Marshall's dynamic accuracy in Kiss Me, Kate, competition at next year's Tony awards will undoubtedly be keen. Swing!, however, suffers from rather poor timing with its fall opening and a lack of firm connective tissue symptomatic of many reviews. It has neither the profundity of Contact nor the fullness of KIss Me, Kate, and may well pale in the light of sterling reviews these shows received.

Coming in at just about two hours, we are certainly not over-taxed. Swing! is full of spark from start to finish. Still, there's an absence of a clear arc to keep our interests climbing. Swing! is more readily compared to last season It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, an analytical look at a particular type of music served up with bright talent and zestful reverie. On this level, the show is a great success and well worth a visit.


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