Dancing on the Edge of Memory
Jack Donahue's ghost is tap-dancing across the Riverside Theatre stage starting next week and you have until Nov. 22 to catch him.
The two-person musical draws on the true story of Jack's letters home as he climbed the brutal early 20th-century vaudeville circuit. You know vaudeville better than you think. It gave us terms like "big time" and "a tough act to follow," plus the mix of monologue, sketch and musical guests that late-night TV shows like Saturday Night Live still run on.
My Vaudeville Man! kicks off the season next Thursday with its Southeast premiere, kicking off new Executive Producer and CEO Jon R. Moses' debut season.
At the show's heart is a tug-of-war as old as parenthood itself: Jack's hunger for the spotlight against his mother's (affectionately called "Mud") mortification at what that spotlight actually costs. To her, a son hoofing for tips is a shame to be hidden from the neighbors; to him, it's the only life worth chasing. Underneath it all runs a cruel inheritance, as Jack danced to outrun his alcoholic father's fate, only to numb his own aching body with the same bottle, his dazzling footwork less an escape from that legacy than an express train barreling toward it.
Jack's cheerful letters home paper over the collapse underneath, a 1920s predecessor to the filtered Instagram grid, as Mud spins her own version of his life for polite company. Yet the friction between them, her embarrassment set against his ambition, never curdles past redemption; the show lets their bond bend without breaking, tracing the two of them toward something like a triumphant understanding by the end.
The evening's high point is "Tap Drunk," a booze-soaked solo number where the performer's heels become a sonic breakdown, a heartbeat racing at an unsustainable speed. It's a shimmering surface over a tragic undertow, uncomfortably relevant to our own performance-obsessed age.
This one's for every mom, dad, son, daughter and dream chaser, so bring one of yours. Tickets are on sale at riversidetheatre.com or through the box office at 772-231-6990.
