Honestly, the only reason we went was my friend Allen Hidalgo has a featured role. The music of Earth Wind and Fire is not significant enough in my musical history to get me into a theater. And the reviews were pretty awful. That said, there was some good stuff at the Hilton Theater last night. The show is not very good, but still, some good stuff.
Allen was very funny. Actually, he was the only one with acting chops on the stage. Because he had the only real developed character, he was truly the stand out. One problem I had was that when he had something to do, he was really terrific, but other times, the director just plopped him on stage (or over the stage, or on the steps) with nothing to do.
Vivian Nixon is a decent dancer, but not a star. The daughter of Debbie Allen, you can see where her technique comes from. There were a couple girls in the chorus who could have given the role the "wow" it needed.
Michael Balderamma had a couple nice moments in the second act, though his movement in the first act seemed stiff and tight, compared to the other, looser male dancers.
The highlight was seeing some true ensemble dancing. It has been since 42nd Street since I have seen a stage filled with dancers like this. A lot of the choreography made no sense, but there were some really great sequences, like when the stage split between the boys and the girls, and there was a rhythmic, percussive music break where the dancers slapped and stomped in wonderful synch.
The set was bad, the lighting was decent, the costumes, particularly on the chorus kids, were confusing and the story was just badly written. The songs were performed well by the three off-stage singers who gave a nice bow at the curtain.
Backstage with Allen, he said that they were fighting the bad reviews. These chorus kids (and Allen) give it all they got, but with such a poor story, I don't see it running too long. Too bad, because there was a lot of talent in that chorus.
