After seeing Come Fly Away on March 31st I reread my able colleague Simon Saltzman's rave review. Tharp's third Broadway venture didn't blow me away quite as much as it did him, but that's not to make this into a loved it/loathed it readership boosting controversy like the one between the theater and dance critic at The New York Times.

While I loved Tharp's Movin' Out ) and loathed The Times They Are A-Changin' I think Come Fly Away has so much going for it that it's hard not to succumb to its charms and to give Ms. Tharp credit from not repeating the mistakes from the awkward narrative that encumbered rather than enhanced the Dylan musical: The great Sinatra songs, the ingenious melding of Ol' Blue Eyes' vocals with a live onstage band, the spectacularly energetic dancing by the superb dancers.

It is because I'm as much a Sinatra fan from way back as Simon and his wife, that I found it a bit spooky to have this brilliant entertainer's voice as background for some of the frenetic choreographic couplings and uncouplings. For one thing, some of this hyperactive dancing, especially in the first act, is more in keeping with Tharp's athletic style than Sinatra's smooth as silk delivery. While certainly a homage he would have loved I didn't get over missing him until the homage spirit got a hold of me in the second act. Impressive as the live music enhancement is, I also would have been happier if it had been just a little less amplified.

I think Ms. Tharp was wise to rely on the lyrics, the dancer' expressiveness and the unifying nightclub setting to make Come Fly Away as at home in a Broadway theater as at a dance venue (where some of these pieces actually did make their first appearance). However, I do admit that I think the slight yet very much present book element in Movin' Out added enormously to the strength of that show. Still, with musicals like Next to Normal that sing and speak but don't dance there's certainly room for a show with all but a couple of songs by a canned but iconic voice, a mere whisper of a plot and lots and lots of divine dancing.

All dance musicals certainly aren't a strictly new-new thing. Richard Maltby Jr., Chet Walker and Ann Reinking conceived a homage to Bob Fosse back in 1998. With Contact Susan Stroman and John Weidman conceived a hit dance play with a triple plot but all canned music. Matthew Bourne's story ballet Swan Lake proved itself to be quite at home in a musical theater setting, as did Martha Clarke's A Garden of Earthly Delights.

For all his accomplishments as a recording and concert artist and actor, Sinatra never appeared in a Broadway musical. So Come Fly Away is as close as you're going to get to at least hearing him while in a Broadway theater.

Links to reviews of shows mentioned above:
( Movin' Out
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Fosse
Next to Normal.
Contact
Swan Lake
Garden of Earthly Delights