On Your Toes

[California]

I wonder if anybody has seen any casting information for the revival of On Your Toes at City Center May 8-12, 2013. It happens to be the six days immediately before the ABT season at the Met, but occurs during the NYCB spring season, which makes me wonder if it might be cast with ABT dancers or some combination.

http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=6639

(I'm not sure I posted this in the right place. Moderators: Please move if I goofed on this.)

[abatt]

City Center never announces casting for the Encores performances until a few weeks before the show. I don't expect to see any casting until early April.

[abatt]

Casting is announced. Irina Dvorovenko, and DeLuz! Should be great.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/encores-announces-casting-for-on-your-toes/?ref=arts

[California]

Casting is announced. Irina Dvorovenko, and DeLuz! Should be great.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/encores-announces-casting-for-on-your-toes/?ref=arts

Great news! I found a more complete list here, although I don't recognize any other names: http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/04-2013/city-center-encores-announces-casting-for-on-your-_64892.html

[rg]

Kurt Froman and Jessy Hendrickson (sister of recently retired NYCB soloist, Adam) were both in NYCB.

Alex Wong was with Miami City Ballet among other groups.

[Jack Reed]

IIRC, Alex Wong was out for a long time with a serious injury, so this it's especially gratifying news that he's performing.

[mimsyb]

IIRC, Alex Wong was out for a long time with a serious injury, so this it's especially gratifying news that he's performing.

And I believe he's been dancing in "Newsies" on Broadway also.

[cubanmiamiboy]

IIRC, Alex Wong was out for a long time with a serious injury, so this it's especially gratifying news that he's performing.

And I believe he's been dancing in "Newsies" on Broadway also.

I always felt he wasn't completely satistifed dancing classical ballet only. we certainly miss his dancing down here.

[abatt]

Here is NY Times review. Ben Brantley goes ga-ga for Irina.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/theater.reviews.on.your-toes-with-christine-baranski-at-city-center.html?ref=arts

[abatt]

I saw On Your Toes last night. It's definitely not a top tier musical, but it was fun. Irina was wonderful. She danced up a storm as the sexy strip tease girl. In addition, her comic timing and the delivery of her lines were spot on. She was perfect for the role, and the audience loved her. Joaquin DeLuz had a much smaller part, but he did well enough.

[carbro]

I much preferred the Spaniard's Russian accent to the Ukranian's -- I could understand DeLuz (who really did sound Russian!) much more easily than Dvorovenko. I lost too much of her dialogue, understanding something around 50% of it. It may have been as much the fault of the amplification system as the actress, or perhaps even my own aging ears . And while I agree that she vamped vampiously, and diva-ed diva-ishly, she is not on my list of favorite Striptease Girls.

I'm so glad I bought this ticket. I've enjoyed every Encores production I've seen (not enough). If this one, which boasted such top talent (besides our ballet dancers) as Karen Ziemba, Walter Bobbie and Christine Baranski, as well as some of the past ones (Kismet with Brian Stokes Mitchell comes to mind) are any indication, I've been a fool not to grab tickets for all of them as soon as they go on sale.

I was especially impressed by Warren Carlyle's ingenious solution to staging the Princess Zenobia Ballet on half of a small stage. He put the dancers on benches and has the male dancers change the direction of the benches, changing the dimensions of the space and making it work as a semi-duplex, as well.

Tonight's was the last show of this production. Otherwise, I'd urge New Yorkers who haven't seen it to go, GO, GO!

[abatt]

This was the best danced Hoofer I've seen since Woetzel and Neal retired.

[mimsyb]

Lara Teeter opposite Makarova was no slouch either! But I rather liked this production. Yes, Irina needed better amplification and maybe a bit more make up in Act I, but all in all I think she was splendid. Bravo for a musical theater debut! Also, Joaquin stood out. Funny, suave (well, sort of), good comedic timing and great tours en l'air! He also should look into musical theater if he decides to retire from ballet. Choreography by Carlyle was innovative and fun. Those supported fouettes on the benches blew me away! Nice work all around.

[ViolinConcerto]

Lara Teeter was MAGNIFICENT!!! He deserved much more recognition than he got!

[Mme. Hermine]

I saw him (but with Galina Panova) and agree he was wonderful!

[California]

I much preferred the Spaniard's Russian accent to the Ukranian's -- I could understand DeLuz (who really did sound Russian!) much more easily than Dvorovenko. I lost too much of her dialogue, understanding something around 50% of it. It may have been as much the fault of the amplification system as the actress, or perhaps even my own aging ears . And while I agree that she vamped vampiously, and diva-ed diva-ishly, she is not on my list of favorite Striptease Girls.

My sister and I were in the first row of the balcony on Saturday night and had a very different experience. I wonder if there are issues with the acoustics/amplification in City Center. We loved Dvorovenko, could understand her perfectly (both accent and audio), and thought deLuz was hard to hear and failed to project appropriately. We loved the entire production, but had no basis for comparison, having never seen it on Broadway or the old film.

I would have preferred seating in the first tier, but nothing remotely decent was available. The first row of the balcony has a major defect, namely, that the security bar in front of the seats cuts straight across your sightlines. So you have to either scooch down or sit up too high to catch the action. Second row looks like it would be much better, sightline-wise.

[abatt]

I had no problem understanding Irina. Sometimes the audience was laughing while she was still delivering a line, but I could still understand what she said. There were times when it was difficult to understand DeLuz.