SEE or SKIP: After Midnight
SEE because:
It’s about the best Broadway revue to come down the pike in a decade or three.
So polished and so precise while being so energetic.
There’s no filler, no mawkishness, no mugging or begging for applause, no “American-Idol”-style melismatic gargling, no foolin’.
Speaking of precision, give it up for that penguin-like quintet on “Peckin’”.
So joyful and precise is Warren Carlyle’s choreography, we’re sometimes afraid to blink.
Not only is the classic “Diga Diga Do” catchy and fun, the band just smokes.
How do you make up for being a really, really short dancer? By moving like Virgil “Lil O” Gadson, that’s how.
How do you show off your legs, arms and hands if you’re a tall and stocky dancer? By moving like Julius “iGlide” Chisholm, that’s how.
Hard to take your eyes off lithe and athletic Karine Plantadit when she dances (although I have to say, I felt a tiny twinge of discomfort watching this featured dancer - in an all-black revue - who has blonde hair, prominent white teeth and a lighter complexion than most everyone else onstage. Okay, call me a white-guilt douche, but it flashed through my mind.)
Other critics have commented how cool it is that the show’s “encore” showcases just the onstage band. Very cool, indeed, and deserved.
SKIP because:
No, this isn’t “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” loud, but it’s a few decibels over where it needs to be. The audio’s far from painful, but with so much brass, the amping is unnecessary and occasionally distracting.
Gotta love Adriane Lenox covering the down-n-dirty blues tropes (“Women Be Wise”, “Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night”), but her diction isn’t the best (or she’s being overmatched by the orchestra). Either way, we lose lyrics, which defeats the purpose of comic blues numbers.
Even the best bookless revues can have the effect of pigging out at a dessert shop. After awhile, all the sweets piling up can lead to numbness. That’s just the nature of the beast with this kind of show, but you sure feel it less here than in a dozen others of its kind. (Still, maybe just past the 70-minute mark, they could substitute out a number or two with a spoken comedy routine? Just a thought.)
FINAL CALL: SEE because:
This is the kind of show that makes someone who can’t do a box step without stumbling wish they could whirl like a gyroscope. All hail Warren Carlyle and Jack Viertel for demonstrating that glamour, dazzle and taste can coexist rather wonderfully
