Dancing Queen
Riverfront Theater, 650 W. Chicago (map)
thru June 24 | tickets: $35-$90 | more info
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It’s time to give ABBA a rest
Riverfront Theater presents
Dancing Queen
Review by Clint May
Maybe it’s just that I so recently witnessed an amazing example of inhabitation vs impersonation in a classic music genre that Dancing Queen feels all the more as though it’s trying to put the ‘product’ in ‘musical production.’ This is a show that looks at an already fluffy, silly musical like Mama Mia! (which got no love herein January – and Keith didn’t received any love from the commenters, some of them actors in the show, it would appear) and decided to do away with that pesky plot stuff and just give the people what they apparently want: wall-to-wall nostalgia. This makes Dancing Queen more of an extended TIME LIFE box-set “Sounds of the ‘70s” infomercial than a musical medley.
This is a good object lesson in what it does and doesn’t take to create nothing original and expect money and time for the effort of repurposing other work. Maybe the doomsayers are correct and most new musicals have become unapologetically cash-grubbing due to extraordinary production costs and a fear of alienating lucrative tourist dollars that want “safe” bets for their money. And what can be safer than mining the top hits of the past? Well, not as safe as you’d imagine. Dancing Queen has another lesson in has/buts—it has energy but not chemistry, has technical panache but not soul, has choreography but not inspiration, etc.
It’s enough to make a young(ish) theater goer cynical.
Of course, I’m not going to lay the funeral wreath of the musical/concert/revue at Dancing Queen’s footsteps. It’s not unusual for new venues or new troupes to want to be cautious in their tentative first steps, and this is only the 2nd (or 3rd if you count Peter Pan from the previous season) offering from the newly inaugurated Riverfront Theater. But for the type of show they’re offering, I want a crescendo of energy to cascade off the stage. Actually leaving the stage to dance with the audience doesn’t count. As my companion for the evening remarked at intermission, even the technical values were a bit “blurry” instead of crisp. This includes the sound and dance numbers, as much of the choreography is messy with few exceptions. In fact, only “Shout” stands out as the best number of the group, and it certainly has the most spectacle for the eye.
The press materials play up the ABBA and Saturday Night Fever aspects of the show, and that’s true in the first act. The second act goes into a “Soul Medley” and “Motown Medley” (complete with a Donna Summer tribute) that drives home how a young troupe is better off sticking to frilly pop numbers that weren’t exactly soulful to begin with. The four main singers – David Hernandez, Justin Jones, Mandy Kerridge and Jillian Schochet – can’t quite create that rich, full-bodied sound of classics like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” or “Rolling on the River.” They seem to be performing an idea of the song as opposed to imbuing it with the appropriate amount of soul, a simulacrum that won’t make any converts to those who didn’t grow up in this era. I didn’t, but I did grow up with a Saturday Night Fever-loving mother and Elton John loving-father, so I’m not completely uninitiated to the Baby Boomers’ top hits. They aren’t all bad, but they just don’t have the dazzle factor to really “wow” the eyes and ears, which is something a show like this needs when not promising anything else. Even the stage itself was listless and underutilized.
The large troupe of dancers perform their own medley mash-up, from flamenco to disco to step-dancing (which I thought was disconcerting combined with the Village People’s “In the Navy”). I recognized all the choreography from other shows, with nothing standing out as an exception save the aforementioned “Shout” number. Queen has the requisite smiles, but even those seemed a little tacked on. Their movements aren’t as precise and polished, nor are the costumes terribly imaginative or extravagant as you might find in a Vegas show. It is definitely a production where you could see the seams.
If this all sounds like an essay or a diatribe against what looks like an innocent enough show that on the surface just wants to have fun, it is. I have to make the case that I’m not against fun in and of itself (and some critics do seem to be…) while advocating quality theater in Chicago—I’m here to tell you that you can have it both ways. But when I get a desperate email from a struggling storefront making wonderful, challenging theater wondering why they can’t fill seats and hoping for suggestions on increasing attendance, I get even more irked by the seeming cupidity of shows like Dancing Queen. Playing up David Hernandez’s stint on “American Idol” only helps make this production feel even more desperate, hoping to brand itself not just to ABBA but a popular TV show, as if to say, “Look how safe this will be! Guaranteed bang for your buck!” (and at 35-90 dollars a pop, those are not inconsiderable bucks). But even the ever affable and quite talented Hernandez doesn’t seem to be giving this his A-game, and audiences can easily compare this to his “Idol” performances to see the difference.
Fans of these original numbers will probably like this show, and looking around the audience, I saw several people getting into the groove. I also saw more people like myself stoically unmoved. Normally I don’t take audience reaction into great consideration for a review, but in this case it’s actually essential to gauging the success of the performance if their stated mission is to have everyone “dancing, singing and swinging in the aisles.”
Nonetheless, I love the idea of a giant tent on Chicago’s riverfront and wish this new venue a long, happy future. This really is a big, adaptable space where you can do things you can’t get away with in more established houses and that’s very exciting. Now it’s time to fill this great new addition to the Chicago scene with some top-notch productions (the Twelve Tenors was a much better start). Optimist that I am, I see Dancing Queen as more a stumbling block in the path to maturity and a genuine voice for this new addition rather than indicative of a future of vapid theater, of which the world has enough. Here’s hoping!
Rating: ★★
Dancing Queen continues through June 24th at Riverfront Theater, 650 W. Chicago (map), with performances Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays 8pm, Saturdays 2pm/5pm/8pm, Sundays 2pm/5pm. Tickets are $35-$90, and are available by online through AndTicketing.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at RiverfrontTheater.com. (Running time: 2 hours, includes intermission)
