… while Denis Jones (Honeymoon in Vegas) provides the sterling choreography. A dance combination from the show-within-the-show’s director/choreographer—“bounce bounce bounce bounce, Fosse arm, Fosse arm” etc.—is so outlandishly successful that they manically repeat it several times. Word to the wise: don’t rush out early in the curtain call.
From the gaudy Renaissance costumes (by William Ivey Long) to the over-the-top choreography (from Denis Jones), the creatives nail it.
The score, by Tony winner David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit), and choreography by Denis Jones are light and lively.
The choreography, from Denis Jones, a series of bounces and gyrations, gets satirized by Rogers’ Carlisle early and then makes those movements charming for the best number of the evening, a “Producers”-like tribute to the jittery excitement of opening night.
Still, “Tootsie” gets so very much right. It’s by far the best of this recent crop of Chicago tryouts: I’ve surely never seen a musical comedy so deliciously lampoon the familiar tropes of Broadway choreography (choreographer Denis Jones has both guts and self-awareness) and, by being so palpably warmhearted, it avoids causing any offense in an era much changed from 1982. No easy feat, that.
A big highlight of the show was Denis Jones’s bursting choreography that was executed flawlessly by the talented ensemble and kept the show fast and fluid.
