ContactContactSo here’s the question: If I hadn’t known in advance that Contact had won the 2001 Tony for Best New Musical and that the New York Times (insert appropriate genuflecting here) hadn’t described it as "that rare entertainment that has you floating all the way home", would I have been more willing to accept the fact that it was simply entertaining and thought-provoking without leaving me on Cloud 9?
I don’t know and frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. What I do know is that, should you decide to plunk down as much as $62 apiece for tickets, you should bear in mind that while director and choreographer Susan Strohman may be the Next Big Thing in musical theatre, Contact probably isn’t. It is, however, a solid, smart and mostly quite entertaining evening of dance performed by a top-notch cast, and these days that’s nothing to sneeze at.
The three one-act ballets that make up Contact all deal, one way or another, with people trying to make – well – contact with each other. In the opener, “Swinging”, Jean-Honoré Fragonard's 1767 painting The Swing comes to life to the music of Stephane Grapelli as the pink-clad noblewoman on the swing, her aristocratic lover and a strapping young servant appear to be involved in an erotic game – which they are, but not in quite the way you expect.
Nor is all what it seems in the second piece, “Did You Move?”, set in an Italian restaurant in 1954. Here, a meek wife seeks escape from her repulsively cold husband in increasingly surreal flights of fancy, dancing with the headwaiter, using fellow patrons as props, and finally building to a literal orgy of pleasure and revenge. Sadly, reality wins out in the end.
In the third and most substantial piece, “Contact”, fantasy and reality become indistinguishable. Despite his umpteenth Clio award, advertising executive Michael Wiley’s solitary life has led him to despair and the brink of suicide. Wandering into an after-hours bar in which swing dancing is the order of the day, he finds himself fascinated by The Girl in the Yellow Dress, exuding sensuality and dancing like the sinuous dream she may be. His attempts to overcome his own inertia and make physical contact with her provide the tension in the piece, set to music by Dion, Robert Palmer, and Benny Goodman {“Sing, Sing Sing”), among others.
Strohman’s brilliant, imaginative and often witty choreography is performed with great skill and passion by this cast. As the noblewoman in Swinging, Mindy Franzese Wild is all innocent passion and wild-eyed wonder, ably supported by Keith Kühl and Andrew Asnes. Meg Howrey manages the lightning-fast personality changes in “Did You Move?” with amazing ease, floating across the stage in her fantasies and then swiftly collapsing back into mousy reality. Adam Dannheisser shows impressive range as both the brutal husband and later as the loopy bartender in Contact.
Speaking of which: as The Girl in the Yellow Dress, Holly Cruikshank is a marvel of grace and poise, wrapped in an attitude composed of equal parts of come-hither sexuality and self-assurance. Strohman has her toying with the earthbound Wiley once too often for my taste, but Cruikshank almost made me believe it anyway. Alan Campell is completely convincing as Wiley, a role which is, I think, far more difficult than it looks.
Contact continues at the Fox through Sunday [11/4/2001], and I’d recommend it highly for anyone who enjoys contemporary theatrical dance and wants to understand why Susan Strohman is a hot property on the Great White Way. Call 314-534-1111 for tickets.