The Tap Dance Kid (Encores!)
I look forward to the Encores! series every year. With COVID, the show did not go on in 2021. A new Artistic Director was installed and The Tap Dance Kid is the musical chosen to restart the program. In many ways, the choice is an epic fail.
Productions at Encores! are generally five days long and performed as concerts with some sets and staging. This show, as its title would suggest, has tap dancing at its reason for being. Those numbers are indeed impressive and fun. The leaden family story, however, dominates the time and is quite boring. The direction by the often reliable Kenny Leon (A Soldier’s Play, Fences) is completely flat. The actors stand around a lot reciting lines which are as cliché as can be.
Originally on Broadway in 1983, The Tap Dance Kid took place in the present. That has been revised here to be 1957. That makes sense since the story is very old fashioned. A novelty at the time, New York audiences were treated to a well-to-do black family with a son who sees his calling in tap. Lawyer dad says no. Submissive mom stays quiet. Ugly, fat daughter is mad.
There is a major disconnect in the role of Emma. Shahadi Wright Joseph is by far the best thing in this underwhelming show. She’s smart, tough and likable for all her gutsy nerve. She is not, however, ugly or fat. When those words are spoken, it causes the head to shake. Huh?
The story also includes an Uncle (a winning Trevor Jackson) who is a choreographer staging a trade show production for a shoe company. He is the boy’s idol. His grandfather is dead but he also was a superlative dancer. His ghost appears more than once. When the show stops dragging and starts to dance, there is life on stage. When it slows down and adds more plot (like the choreographer’s new girlfriend), the weight of one dimensional characters proves too much to bear.
What is even worse are the songs by Henry Krieger (music) and Robert Lorick (Lyrics). They are undistinctive and bland. “Fabulous Feet” does indeed satisfy but the serious drama songs suck all energy from the stage. It is that dull. Mr. Krieger penned this score after a smash hit with Dreamgirls a few years earlier. I consider his Side Show from 1997 as a masterpiece of musical theater. There are definite hints of what is to come especially in the 11:00 number, “William’s Song”.
The extraordinarily talented Joshua Henry (Carousel, Violet) portrays the hard as nails William. The character is so rigidly mean that it is cartoonish. His big number comes out of nowhere and it attempts to paint a picture of why he is that way. In a nutshell, he doesn’t believe in dancing for the white man. A successful lawyer, he sees forward progress for his people and his family that doesn’t involve being a clown on display. For what it is worth, the song stings but arrives out of nowhere.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the book of The Tap Dance Kid is a lack of focus. There is no way to discern which individual this musical is really about. I guess it’s about “the kid” of the title but everyone seems to get center stage more than once. That they stand around looking under rehearsed does not help.
I’ve seen some great shows at Encores! and even made some amazing discoveries (Paint Your Wagon comes to mind). This one is possibly the worst thing I’ve experienced in this series. Lear deBessonet’s first outing as Artistic Director is a huge disappointment. Next up is The Life, a problematic show about prostitutes. It is being rewritten by Billy Porter so as not to offend today’s sensibilities as well as fix what did not work the first time. Cross your fingers.
The Tap Dance Kid was performed at City Center from February 2 – 6, 2022. The Life starts on March 16th.