I first got hooked on Broadway musicals as a preteen at Gypsy, with its tapping moppets, gyrating burlesque queens and Tulsa, the dancing heartthrob. I’ve been going ever since, but Dance Magazine has been at it even longer. The 1926-27 Broadway season was just ending when DM began publication, and of its 200-plus shows, dozens […]

Anyone worried about the future of live musical theater in a world full of tablets and earbuds and endlessly streaming video would have been relieved to be at the Minskoff Theatre on Monday night, as dozens of young singer-dancer-actors from all over the country paraded their formidable talents. No, it wasn’t a performance of The […]

Broadway’s Bandstand is chock-full of 1940s glamour. The show—which recently snagged a Tony for best choreography for Andy Blankenbuehler’s swing-infused moves and depictions of soldiers post-WWII—has no shortage of charming women’s fashions from the era. But how do you transport a cast back in time 70-plus years to create an accurate look? We went backstage […]

The 2017 Tony Awards were last night, and despite it being a highly competitive Broadway season, things went more or less as predicted. Andy Blankenbuehler took home yet another Tony for Best Choreography after the cast of Bandstand showed everyone exactly why he deserved it (and, of course, the award was announced during a commercial […]

It’s that time of year again. The Tony Awards are this weekend, and frankly, we can’t decide on which performance we’re most excited to see—Andy Blankenbuehler‘s swing-infused Bandstand choreography? Whatever the kooky-cool Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 cast has up their old-fashioned sleeves (and, by default, Josh Groban’s golden pipes)? Best Actor […]

It’s not often that a dance video provokes bona fide cackling in our office, but this new episode of BroadwayWorld TV’s improv-based series “Turning the Tables” is just too real. For this episode, seven Broadway pros were invited to a mock dance call. With series regulars Ellyn Marie Marsh, Andrew Briedis, Andrew Chappelle and Julia […]

It doesn’t look like your great-grandfather’s jitterbug. Yes, the year is 1945, and yes, the setting is a jazz club. But these swing dancers are in the new musical Bandstand, directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler. The number, “Nobody,” is a paean to determination—”You know who tells me, ‘Stop’? Nobody.” The choreography begins as metaphor […]

It’s Broadway awards season, and tons of our favorite dancers and choreographers are getting big-time recognition. The Tony Award nominations were announced yesterday and the Best Choreography finalists include: Andy Blankenbuehler for Bandstand Peter Darling and Ellen Kane for Groundhog Day Kelly Devine for Come From Away Denis Jones for Holiday Inn Sam Pinkleton for […]