It's now been 35 years since Twyla Tharp's first go-round with the Chairman of the Board. The brief triptych "Once More, Frank" was originally intended as a one-off for an American Ballet Theatre gala when she danced it with Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976. Six years later, she expanded it into Nine Sinatra Songs, a suite of seven duets and two reiterative sections depicting a variety of relationships from lyric to openly abusive. (The sequence for "That's Life" famously provoked choreographer Mark Morris to walk out of a 1984 performance at the American Dance Festival.)
In this 2010 Broadway production, which nabbed a Drama Desk Award for best choreography, a live 18-piece orchestra backs Sinatra's original vocal tracks (in a technical arrangement suggesting inverted karaoke) on 35 songs over two acts. Tharp's memorable dancers are men and women who've all come to the same nightclub on the same night in search of different things: diversion, romance, love—or something darker. What they find, in themselves and each other, gradually unfolds to an unforgettable soundtrack. The production, which is not recommended for children under 13, opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and continues through Sunday, Oct. 2. —Byron Woods
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Durham Performing Arts Center
- 123 Vivian St, Durham Durham County NC 27701
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Info 919-688-3722, Tickets 919-680-2787
- www.dpacnc.com
- (based on 4 user reviews)
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