They sing! They act! And yeah, they apparently dance, too. Behold Broadway’s newest young crop of… um… hoofers. Or something.
Sutton Foster
Yeah, she danced in Thoroughly Modern Millie. But that’s nothing compared to what she’s up to in Kathleen Marshall’s revival of Anything Goes. The choreography in the show’s barn burner of a title number isn’t exactly complicated, but it’s Sutton’s breezy execution that makes it so winning. And check out her split on the floor late in the second act. Which she does in lingerie. If that’s not worth another Tony Award, I’m not sure what is.
Will Swenson
Your eyes do not deceive you. That is Will Swenson in a dress. And he is dancing. And while Will doesn’t have nearly the workout in Priscilla Queen of the Desert that his costar Nick Adams does, the show still requires that he do more than keep the beat. He does it quite successfully, too.
Aaron Tveit
During Catch Me If You Can’s splashy opening number, I actually gasped. Not at the crazy technicolor costumes and gnarly wigs, but at Aaron Tveit, who apparently… can dance. And in ways that are not embarrassing. A far cry from Gabe’s various abstract, up-in-the-rafters pole dances in Next to Normal, Jerry Mitchell’s choreography summons all of Aaron’s inner razzle dazzle. We like it. We feel like someone’s pulling one over on us—is there a secret body double in that scene?—but we like it.
Norbert Leo Butz
Forget that he’s wearing a fat suit. Forget that he does not look, or in any way seem like a dancer. Norbert Leo Butz is an undercover dancer. In fact, he won an Astaire Award for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels—a show in which his character did not, for the most part, do any actual dancing. So in Catch Me If You Can, it’s not entirely shocking that Norbert carries off the show’s big production number with such panache. In fact, he steals the entire show in that scene, due in no small part to his dancing. Or creative placement of arms. Or entirely insane flailing. Whatever is happening there, it’s awesome.
Daniel Radcliffe
Yeah, you can kinda hear him counting under his breath. But no matter. Dan Radcliffe can dance, baby. Why? Because Dan Radcliffe wants to dance more than anything on earth. And like everyone on this list, he proves that with enough training, crazy things are achievable. In this case, the boy didn’t just live. He tapped off into the sunset.
photo: The Hartman Group
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