Displaying items by tag: Georgia Engel
If You Ever Loved Dancing You GOTTA See "Gotta Dance"!
"Gotta Dance" is a partly fictional partly true story based on the 2008 documentary film by Dori Bernestein about the New Jersey Nets and the basketball team’s efforts to boost flagging attendance by creating the first-ever hip-hop halftime dance team comprised only of those 60 and older.
Georgia Engel, best known for her role on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, plays a school teacher who secretly loves, listens and dances to Tupac in her spare time. Engel steals the show with practically every line of hers getting huge laughs, showing that not only can she still sing and dance at the age of 67, Engle has lost NONE of her terrific comedic timing.
Also, Stefanie Powers most famous for her role on TV's "Hart to Hart" looks, dances and sounds absolutely beautiful in her role as the slightly bitter divorcee. Once crowned Miss NY Subway, she refuses to let go of her youthful image holding on any way she can, including Botox and still taking three dance classes a week at the age of 73.
Two of the best songs in the show “Dorothy/Dottie” and “The Prince of Swing” are the work of Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Line”), who worked on the show just before his death in 2012.
Dance team member Camilla is played by a tall, thin, gorgeous Broadway singer and dancer, Nancy Ticotin, who at age 58 engaged in a HOT, sexy affair with her 25-year-old salsa partner (Alexander Aguilar). Ticotin's excellent dancing and voice are really standouts in this show and her affair with a younger man is entirely believable as she looks and dances with the grace of a woman half her age.
Mae, who is an adorable, well-meaning but slightly confused and off balance dancer is played by Lori Tan Chinn. Chinn gives heart wrenching but casually delivered rendering of “The Waters Rise”, a moving song about her husband’s deterioration from Alzheimer’s disease.
The sole man in the dance group is Ron played adorably by Andre De Shields, a still mourning widower who has a fantastic mellowed out yet modern feel to his Jazzy dancing and delivery of straight forward encouragement to the ladies around him in the show.
Like many of the characters in the show, I "used to be a dancer" until I was disabled in an accident so I really loved the fact that they showed that practically everyone has some of the ability to keep dancing at an advanced age, whether it's hip hop, swing, or tap if you like!
"Gotta Dance" also showed the ageism young dancers face when being "retired" forcibly from their dance squads at the ripe old age of 27.
I highly recommend "Gotta Dance". This is a funny, fast paced, heartwarming and inspiring show every single person should see at some time in their life.
"Gotta Dance" reminds us all we are spirits living in bodies that may be slowly deteriorating, but we need never give up the JOY of DANCING our young or old bodies - in our living rooms at least! Playing at Bank of America Theatre through January 17th, tickets and more show info can be found at www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
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Holiday Hilarity! Paramount presents The Second City’s Nut-Cracking Holiday Revue at downtown Aurora’s Copley Theatre, Nov. 20-Dec. 23
Written by Buzz Center StageNeed something better than old reruns of Hallmark Movies this holiday season? Want to see some real nut-crackers? Then dash on through the snow to catch The Second City’s Nut-Cracking Holiday Revue, November 20-December 23 at Paramount’s Copley Theatre, 8… -
Mary, A Holiday Dansical Returns for one performance only at Logan Center December 13th
Written by Buzz Center StageBlack Girls Dance®, which centers Black and Brown girls in joyful community, presents its sixth annual production of Mary, A Holiday Dansical, choreographed, written, and directed by Founder Erin Barnett. This fundraiser returns for one night only Sunday, December 13…
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The Gift Theatre's Hayward: A Floridian-Style Shiva
Written by Wesley DavidThere are funerals where grief brings a family together, and then there are funerals where grief opens the door to everything a family has spent years trying to keep buried. In Hayward, playwright Netta Walker turns a father’s funeral into… -
JK Entertainment presents WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID at Greenhouse Theater Center November 12 – 29, 2026
Written by Buzz Center StageJK Entertainment has released first look rehearsal photos for WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID, the first production of the company's second season. JK Entertainment's production brings this story to Chicago audiences November 12–29, inviting audiences to consider how far…
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