Take The Lead… A Must See
- PostEagle
- April 21, 2025
- Entertainment
- 0 Comments
“Take The Lead” Should Be Broadway Bound
by James Dombrowski
I was walking on Broadway the other evening and a shining marquee lite up the Broadway Theatre on 53rd & Broadway featuring “The Great Gatsby”.
“The Great Gatsby”, was another Broadway hit, made possible at the Tony Award Winning Best Regional Playhouse, the majestic Paper Mill in Millburn, NJ. The Paper Mill Playhouse lead by Mark Hoebee and Michael Stotts truly produces Broadway quality shows in NJ.
My daughter Talia who accompanied me to review the “Great Gatsby” at Paper Mill first saw it on Broadway as part of a Paramus Catholic school trip. After seeing the play a second time with me, she said, “Daddy it was no different than the one I saw in New York City.”
Now debuting at The Paper Mill running through April 27 is “Take The LEAD”, directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli. It is a must see!
“Take The LEAD” mixes hip hop and Ballroom Dancing in a Bronx High School as a means to improve self esteem and bring together students who don’t always get along. The dancing and singing is fabulous and the audience which probably has caught “Dancing with the Stars” on television over the past decades will be mesmerized by the skill of the performers.
Pierre Dulaine is a legend of Ballroom Dancing. He taught dancing at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in 1976 which led him and his partner to win four World Exhibition Dance Championships.
In 1984 he founded the American Ballroom Theater Company in NYC. His efforts to spread Ballroom Dancing to the masses were appreciated by Tommy Tune who featured him and Yvonne Marceau, his dance partner, in the Broadway musical “Grand Hotel” which opened in 1989.
As the appeal and success of Ballroom dancing spread across America in 1994, Dulaine, Marceau, and Otto Cappel founded dancing classes in NYC. Pierre felt that through social dancing you could improve social skills and inspire pride in yourself through team work.
The Paper Mill could have 2 Broadway hits on the Great White Way very soon.
In Photo: PIERRE DULAINE
