Burn This

continued

White-hot Glasgow is the scene stealer, but he gets terrific backup from the rest of the ensemble: Quetta Carpenter (as Anna, a loft-living choreographer), Jon Bennett (as Burton, her lover), and Kevin Young (as Larry, Anna's gay roommate). It's a beautifully wrought production, except in one respect: I had trouble buying Anna as a dancer--her fine, toned body lacks that high carriage and catlike, narcissistic grace, and I saw her more as a woman who spends hours on a StairMaster. I note with interest that the men got a fight choreographer (Joseph Zettelmaier, who must have done a fantastic job). Why couldn't they hire a dance coach for Carpenter? Perhaps there's more gender parity on the 1987 set than backstage.   

[Originally published in September, 2012.]