New Broadway Season Skimps on Dance.

THIS YEAR, like others, new Broadway productions are being tailored to attract New York's influx of summer tourists--shows like the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened in April; Aida, the $12 million Disney musical at the Palace (choreographed by Wayne Cilento), and the Public Theater's The Wild Party. But unlike last year, when dance-driven shows including Contact, Kiss Me, Kate, Swing, and Saturday Night Fever spearheaded the Broadway season (Fosse was already well established), dance isn't playing a big role.

Even so, Susan Stroman is still at the musical forefront, with the continuation of Contact in the larger space of the Beaumont Theater, and the revival of The Music Man, which opened in April. Stroman not only directed and choreographed that show, but cast a virtual unknown, Craig Bierko (whose experience had been limited mostly to TV and films), as "Professor" Harold Hill, the traveling salesman of "Seventy-six Trombones" fame. Bierko confessed to having no major theatrical dancing or singing experience except for a stint with a Los Angeles musical theater group.

Before the show opened, I looked in on a rehearsal in the spectacular studios atop Radio City Music Hall, where Stroman told me, "He's a street dancer. By that I mean he picks up everything really quickly." Said Bierko, a six-foot-plus hunk of understated, savvy charm: "I have to trust her. She knew what she was doing in casting me for the part. I have implicit faith in Stro [Stroman's widely used nickname]. If she says I can sing and dance, I can."

The role has patter songs "and entails a lot of shouting," as Bierko put it, but requires less conventional vocal expertise than that of Marian the Librarian, portrayed by the talented Rebecca Luker, last seen on Broadway in The Sound of Music.

Luker was also a standout among a great cast in the Encores production of The Boys From Syracuse a couple of seasons ago. The series at City Center has done more to boost upcoming musical stars than almost any other talent-spotting place in town, not to mention spawning hit revivals like Chicago. Recently Kristin Chenoweth, lauded as the primary, and for some critics, the only reason to see You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, was hailed for her work in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the Alan Jay Lerner-Burton Lane show which kicked off this year's trio of revivals. It was also notable for Brent Barrett, whose handsome visage and terrific tenor mark him for an upwardly mobile Broadway career.

Casting wasn't available at press time for Wonderful Town, the final offering, but this 1954 hit is bound to be special, even among Encores's usually successful ventures. Originally Rosalind Russell, framed within the surefire talents of Leonard Bernstein (music), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (lyrics), and Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov (book), starred in the wryly funny tale of two naive sisters who move from starchy Ohio to bohemian Greenwich Village (occasioning the lyric "Why, oh, why, oh, why, oh/why did I ever leave Ohio?"). This time around, the director and choreographer is Encores artistic director Kathleen Marshall, who scored a hit with her dances for Kiss Me, Kate (see Dance Magazine December 1999, pp. 84-86). The very busy Marshall recently undertook both directing and choreographing the off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's first musical, Saturday Night, which was a lot more fun than the similarly named but totally different Saturday Night Fever still playing on Broadway. Marshall's next challenge is Seussical, The Musical, which is based on the books of Dr. Seuss and slated to open next fall, although they're not letting much cat out of the hat.

Next year's forecast, minus Broadway dates, includes Finian's Rainbow, Oliver!, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Musicals made from movies rather than the other way around seem to be gaining ground, with MGM's The Pirate (Gene Kelly's tour de force with the great Cole Porter score) possibly opening in the late fall next year. An original new musical (albeit based on an old play by Friedrich Durrenmatt) is being created for 2001 by the top talent team of Kander and Ebb, with book by Terrence McNally. Don't hold your breath, but they're talking about Angela Lansbury for the lead.

Three other musicals have been mentioned as possibilities for the late fall or early next year, and they all involve veteran choreographer-director Patricia Birch. This August, we may see workshop previews of her choreography for Blackstone, about famous illusionist Harry Blackstone. Then there's Lone Star Love, based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and set in, of all unlikely places, Texas. Birch is also choreographing It's Good To Be Alive, a musical based on the heyday of Yiddish theater in New York, as captured in the songs and lyrics of Cy Coleman. Alan King will star.

And just in case you're heading toward a favorite Broadway house this summer, check the name first--it may have changed. Corporate America is replacing theaterdom's elite as the house name of choice. Already there's a Ford Center for the Performing Arts (where Jesus Christ Superstar opened). Now American Airlines Theater is supplanting the gentler-sounding Selwyn Theater on 42nd Street. What next? A dot.com (for comedy) Online Airline Theater?