DANCE-OFF.(Never Gonna Dance)(Theater Review)

Deidre Goodwin is a lioness of sorts. She's the kind of performer who is as fiercely protective and nurturing of her talent as Elsa was of her cubs in the 1966 sudser "Born Free." With her long, muscular limbs and shrewd, darting eyes, she is always on the hunt for prey. Sometimes that takes the form of a man; other times it's a musical number. Either way, she tears into whoever or whatever she's doing with considerable intelligence and feline ferocity.

And, like a lioness who knows every inch of her terrain--in Goodwin's case, it's the stage--she knows just when to strike. In the small but pivotal role of Velma in the new musical "Never Gonna Dance" (at the Broadhurst), Goodwin is a hoofer who's been around a long time and is tired of getting little or no financial remuneration. At the beginning of the show, she and her partner, Spud (the strong and fine Eugene Fleming), are entering a dance contest. They're acting for the judges: why, we're just li'l ol' country kids, a brother-and-sister act. But for them the real prize is getting one over on those dim-witted ofays. Velma and Spud are lovers; they want to use the prize money to buy some time to rest and soak their feet.

Velma is cynical about show business in general, but she never reveals her fatigue. Nevertheless, her cynicism is in her eyes, or conveyed in a shrug of her shoulders. She smiles only when she has to, getting it up to make believe she's not as world-weary or as street-smart as she is--but then the smile feels forced, almost strident. Generally, Velma uses her energy to feed her feminine wiles, the better to survive, and to draw blood with her talent. Goodwin is thrilling to watch, because she's dangerous, a dark, albeit brilliant force that could just as easily fill a stadium as a stage with her powerful presence, quick turns, high kicks, scissor splits, and deep contralto.

You might remember Goodwin from the 2002 Oscar-winning film "Chicago," which this show owes a lot to. She played one of the "merry murderesses" on a Jazz Age death row made even harder and spookier by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger. Goodwin, convicted of killing her husband, declared her innocence and danced her passion; she had a retro look and a dramatic strength that blew her co-murderesses away. (Watching Goodwin in the film and now here, I thought it might be interesting to see her in a non-dancing, yet still physically demanding role--Charlotte Corday, perhaps, in "Marat/Sade"--to get a better sense of her range.) I'm assuming that Harvey Weinstein, who is one of the producers behind "Never Gonna Dance," and who also produced "Chicago," had a hand in casting her. Weinstein knows a star when he sees one.

Based on the classic 1936 musical "Swing Time," starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, "Never Gonna Dance" is as much an homage to the film as it is a comment on the era that it grew out of. (The title of the current show is among those which the producers of the film rejected before settling on "Swing Time.") As in the film, Lucky Garnett (Noah Racey) is a dancer who's on the verge of marrying up. He's a vaudevillian only half in love with his intended, the snooty and precious small-town heiress Margaret Chalfont (Deborah Leamy). Show business has Lucky by the wedding tails, but Margaret's Republican father disdains his profession and will condone the marriage only if Lucky can raise twenty-five thousand dollars not by dancing. Tap dancing, Mr. Chalfont implies, is not a grownup activity. The buck-and-wing? Lower you cannot get.

No sooner is Lucky in the train station, headed for New York in search of loot and good fortune, than he's pulled back into movement as his dancer's ears pick up on the rhythms that surround him: newspapers being stacked, coffee being hawked, passengers scurrying across marble floors. The choreographer, Jerry Mitchell, and the director, Michael Greif, handle this and the rest of the show with great sophistication and effervescence, which is exactly what the material requires.

By having Lucky ...