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NYTheatre.com, United States
- November 10, 2007
VIDEO PROJECTIONS, PHOTOS, A
TON OF TAP AND MUSICAL NUMBERS
Tapeire, celebrates the Irish
side of tap dancing.
By Gyda Arber
Tapeire,
the new tap show at the New Victory, celebrates
the Irish side of tap dancing, a side often underrepresented
in the U.S. Video projections and photos of old
Ireland form the framework, loosely telling the
history of Irish dance with a ton of tap and musical
numbers thrown in.
James Devine, the star of the piece,
clearly deserves his title as the Guinness World
Record Holder for fastest tapper; aficionados of
tap will appreciate his fabulous technique. He often
taps solo, but is joined frequently by a fiddler
(Ashley Macisaac), a drummer (Paul Jennings), a
harpist (Phamie Gow), or a combination of the three.
Each of these musicians also has a solo moment to
shine, and shine they do, but the show really stands
out when all four come together in the opening and
closing numbers.
The majority of the tap pieces follow
a call-and-response formula between Devine and Jennings,
with Jennings on different percussion instruments
from pots and pans and a pair of spoons to a drum
set and tambourine. Many of the pieces are fabulous;
highlights include a number with Devine on a small
platform emphasizing "economy of space"
that includes a taste of stair dancing and tiny
double pull-backs off of a frying pan, which really
blew my mind.
The theatre, billed as New York's
only theatre for kids and families, is quite comfortable,
and the children at the performance I attended were
incredibly well-behaved (kudos to the theatre, which
with great foresight provides booster seats to eliminate
viewing problems, and doesn't allow refreshments
in the space). The New Victory, though, should really
reexamine its late-seating policy; for the first
25 minutes of the performance I attended, a score
of late patrons were seated immediately upon their
arrival. Ushers with flashlights tried to find them
their seats and a few noisy discussions with other
seat holders occurred not, as one would hope, during
appropriate breaks, but more often than not in the
middle of musical numbers and dance routines.
Tap dancing fans of any age should
rush to the New Victory to catch Tapeire; it's not
every day one can catch dancing of this calibre,
and James Devine is definitely one of the best.
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