After weeks of anticipation, we went to see Dance Dance Revolution tonight and it was brilliant insanity!
The year is 2068 and the world has fallen apart: the economy has collapsed, there’s war, food and other resources are scarce and the arts are banned. All that starts to change when Moonbeam Funk arrives from another planet and helps start the Dance Dance Revolution to make everyone free again. He is the dance prophet, born of crystals that sing and dance, and he’s get the best dance moves around!
Yes, there is some dance-fightin’ as the dance rebels take on the law and end up in a final dance showdown where they either win their freedom (and the right to dance forever) or lose everything.
This show, as you can tell, is plain campy fun with a soundtrack that is a mix of tunes lifted from the video game (with an emphasis on the Disney Mix, including “It’s A Small World,” “Mickey Mouse March” and “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”) and some original tunes (including a riff on “One Song Glory” from Rent that becomes “Shake Your Ass for Freedom).
Van Hansis, Luke from As the World Turns, plays Wiggles, one of the freedom fighters (and the one who tells everyone to shake their ass for freedom). We caught him on stage last winter in Die Mommie Die! and it was great seeing him tackle a completely different role, and in a skimpy costume no less. Sadly I can’t find any production photos to post here to show off him or the antics on stage.
This wacky show plays through December 20 at the Ohio Theater in SoHo and it is already sold out for it’s run. I’m so glad we got tickets right after the production was announced because it was too good to be missed.
I was waiting to hear how this show was! It sounded like so much fun. Anything that bills itself the way this show did obviously doesn’t take itself too seriously and can be ridiculously campy. When is it going on the road?