The Nance

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THE NANCE

Photo: Joan Marcus

Cititour.com Review
Douglas Carter Beane's profile of a gay burlesque star in 1930s New York has a case of dramaturgical bipolarity. The period-style songs and sketches that Nathan Lane & Co. perform make you wish this cheeky, salacious entertainment were still a force today. But the rest of the play, in which Lane's title character struggles to live as gay man in real life, even though he plays one to acclaim on the stage, trudges along like standard-issue issue-of-the-week fare.

You can’t fault Lane, who hits peaks of comic nirvana as Chauncey Miles, known for his "nance" characters—stereotypically effeminate gay men usually played by heterosexual performers. Nor could you blame the supporting cast, which includes such esteemed comic veterans as Lewis J. Stadlen, Cady Huffman and Andrea Burns. And Beane has certainly done his research about the era’s burlesque scene in New York. But he hasn’t molded his piles of facts and anecdotes into a dramatically cohesive whole, and Jack O'Brien's lively production can't compensate.

The love story that drives the play, between Chauncey and Ned (Jonny Orsini), a young man he picks up at an Automat, registers only faintly, as does the fight of his burlesque family to keep their theater up and running as government forces threaten to shut them down for indecency. It's only when Beane is able to work his themes into his burlesque routines that The Nance comes alive. Chauncey has an "I Am What I Am" moment during one of these, and Lane taps into both his weariness and pugnacious spirit with aplomb. It's too bad the rest of the play can't do the same.

By DIANE SNYDER


Visit the Site
http://www.lct.org/showMain.htm?id=219

Cast
Jenni Barber, Andréa Burns, Cady Huffman, Mylinda Hull, Nathan Lane, Geoffrey Allen Murphy, Jonny Orsini, Lewis J. Stadlen

Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/15/2013
Closing 8/11/2013

Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 3/21/2013
Closing Open-ended

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
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