{"id":5843,"date":"2018-04-30T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T17:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=5843"},"modified":"2018-04-30T18:55:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T22:55:31","slug":"how-many-people-in-a-one-woman-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2018\/04\/how-many-people-in-a-one-woman-show\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many People in a One-Woman Show?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Megan Williams in her One Woman Show<\/em>, surrounded by (clockwise from L): Kristen Foote, Megan Williams, Chelsea Hecht, Courtney Lopes, and Esm\u00e9 Boyce. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

I love going to shows at Joe\u2019s Pub for Dance Now\u2019s Dance-mopolitan\u2019s Commissioned Artist Series. But doing so takes a kind of expertise that I may lack. Did I manage to cut the sticky burrata that topped my little salad while keeping clean the blank paper on which I intended to take notes? Check. Did I really order a second beer? Yes, I did. Did I actually take some notes on top of previous notes while keeping my eyes on what was happening on the tiny stage? So sue me.<\/p>\n

The event: Megan Williams\u2019s whip-smart, vastly entertaining One Woman Show <\/em>is billed as a \u201cpost-postmodern dance theater\u00a0follies for the small stage.\u201d Songs and films of the 1930s, 1940s and beyond stir up images that jostle against memories and fantasies in Williams\u2019s own life in this 21st<\/sup> century. That\u2019s why she titled the performance as she did. But she\u2019s not alone on the Pub\u2019s wedge of a stage whose back wall looks like a shiny padded quilt\u2014one that Lauren Parrish\u2019s lighting can turn almost any color. Williams heads a cast of eight impressive others who\u2019ve been seen more in dances by Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Jos\u00e9 Lim\u00f3n, and the like than in nightclub revues or Broadway shows.<\/p>\n

Williams introduces her cast as the stars that they are, wearing headdresses by costume designer Barbara Erin Delo that sprout crescent moons and other heavenly bodies. She herself is crowned with a veritable starburst that looks just fine with her filmy, fake-ostrich-feather-trimmed coat, and she\u2019s expert at occasional lip-synching. While she is swooning around with a chorus of contentious men, yes, that\u2019s Judy Garland singing \u201cGet Happy,\u201d but there\u2019s no way we can recognize all the voices (Danny Kaye, Debbie Reynolds, Rosemary Clooney) singing and speaking in the collage of items culled by sound designer-engineer Sam Crawford from movie history and nightclub hits . No matter. I get the drift and love the guys onstage: Robert Mark Burke, Derek Crescenti, Dylan Crossman, and John Eirich.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Megan Williams held back by (L to R): Robert Mark Burke, Dylan Crossman,
Derek Crescenti, andJohn Eirich. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

Luckily for us, duets abound, and everyone gets plenty of attention. Crossman wafts a purple swath of fabric while Kristen Foote plays the exultant seductress and Josephine Baker sings \u201cR\u00e8ves.\u201d He seems to be trying to copy her, learn from her. Chelsea Hecht wears an apron to dance with Crescenti, while the Brian Sisters sing \u201cHow You Gonna Keep \u2018Em Down on the Farm?\u201d But while Kay Thompson and ensemble deliver \u201cAll or Nothing at All,\u201d Courtney Lopes would as soon choke Burke and pick him up and drop him as do a bit of a slap and shuffle beside him. And Esm\u00e9 Boyce and Eirich opt for a kind of Apache dance, in which mutual seduction is a goal.<\/p>\n

The ingenious costumes play a role. I can\u2019t recall just when everyone appeared in different makeshift ones, as if actors from a bunch of movies all arrived at the studio cafeteria together. Someone wears a lei; someone wields a fan; someone sports a cowboy hat. You know. . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"

Megan Williams’s One Woman Show.<\/em> L to R: Courtney Lopes, Robert Mark Burke, John Eirich, Derek Crescenti, Chelsea Hecht, and Esm\u00e9 Boyce. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

I marvel how Williams choreographed the group numbers so that eight people dancing energetically manage their circles and lines without bumping into one another. And, of course, they don\u2019t always stay on the stage or maintain a \u201cfourth wall.\u201d Sometimes one or another enters or exits down the only aisle instead of disappearing into a lower level behind the curtain at the side-rear of the platform. And they enjoy crouching at the front of the stage to greet patrons at the tables practically at their feet. There\u2019s always a tinge of irony to this puttin\u2019 on a show. They really, really want to entertain us, but the glitzy aspect is tempered by their earnestness.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Megan Williams in her One Woman Show<\/em>. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

Early on, when Willams is dancing with the four men, they leave without her, and for a few moments, she\u2019s alone onstage, slowly rolling over the floor, while a peppy male chorus sings. When she gets up, she has a serious look on her face, and when her fancy coat is brought on, she dons it and walks up the aisle and out of the space. Still, she reappears later with a big green bow on her head and a purple skirt (ruffled shorts underneath) adept at being ever so cute and slightly dysfunctional while we hear a dialogue, \u201cSnooks (Why? Because!),\u201d between Fanny Brice, as Baby Snooks, and Judy Garland in the 1938 film Everybody Sing. <\/em>I seem to remember the line, \u201cBig girls never cry.\u201d Right. Three guys carry her off. Esme Boyce takes over the skirt for\u00a0her<\/em> solo. Later, Williams and Crossman dance together, now searchingly, now swooningly. She beckons him, attempts to hypnotize him. He lifts her. The end. Almost.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Star of the night Megan Williams, surrounded by her helpers. Visible L to R: Robert Mark Burke, Courtney Lopes, and John Eirich. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

I may be losing the thread of this one woman\u2019s memories, dreams, and experiences as it courses through these songs and dances. However, it’s gearing up toward the finale that every show needs. The four women, all in black, have been dancing, three men crawl in, the light turns magenta, a ratchety sound is heard. Then Williams emerges with a load of big disks and hands them out, and\u2014Bright lights! Music!\u2014she becomes a star again, ready to be framed, as if the disks were the petals of a big rose revealing her as its center, while snippets of dialogue from classic movies about strong women chase around them.<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more. Crossman appears in a sparkly silver suit. Foote, similarly glittering, joins him, and, one by one, the whole re-costumed cast enters the stage that\u2019s been so full of recollections. Blue light, the sound of a broken record, but Duke Ellington\u2019s orchestra plays on as stars twinkle on a little screen. And, lo, before us, a smiling, giving-it-out chorus line\u2014if a very refined, indeed lovable one. It gets at the essence of a chorus line, meaning it takes a lot of people to make a life. I mean a show. I mean a life.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The lineup L to R: Dylan Crossman, Kristen Foote, Chelsea Hecht, John Eirich, Megan Williams, Robert Mark Burke, Esm\u00e9 Boyce, Derek Crescenti, Courtney Lopes. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu<\/p><\/div>\n

The waitpersons dole out our bills, we pay up, the performers wend through admirers. Now it\u2019s really the end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love going to shows at Joe\u2019s Pub for Dance Now\u2019s Dance-mopolitan\u2019s Commissioned Artist Series. But doing so takes a kind of expertise that I may lack. Did I manage to cut the sticky burrata that topped my little salad while keeping clean the blank paper on which I intended to take notes? Check. Did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2233,199,1508],"tags":[3025,3023,1248,1552,2151,777,3024,1545,2163,1745,1551,2160,2155,976],"class_list":{"0":"post-5843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dance-cabaret","8":"category-postmodern-views","9":"category-theater-and-dance","10":"tag-barbara-erin-delo","11":"tag-chelsea-hecht","12":"tag-courtney-lopes","13":"tag-dancenow","14":"tag-derek-crescenti","15":"tag-dylan-crossman","16":"tag-esme-boyce","17":"tag-joes-pub","18":"tag-john-eirich","19":"tag-kristen-foote","20":"tag-lauren-parrish","21":"tag-megan-williams","22":"tag-robert-mark-burke","23":"tag-sam-crawford","24":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5843"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5857,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843\/revisions\/5857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}