Tanguera: The Tango Musical

Tanguera: The Tango Musicalhas arrived on its world tour from Buenos Aires for a limited engagement stop at City Center through October 18, 2009. The choreography by dancer and top tangophile Mora Godoy is part tango, ballroom, ballet, contemporary, and acrobatic. Some of the tango choreography is quite classic, but there are very nice modern twists. Godoy's goal is to "extend the lines between dance and theater, in the same vein as did Moving Out and Contact.

As Tanguera plainly bills itself, it's not a tango revue, but a tango musical. Tango began in the brothels and everyman boites of B.A. and grew to be a national passion. This story is about good vs. evil, the haves (gangsters, albeit very well-dressed one) and the have nots (much more casually dressed and all handsome hunks) and the young women they love and the seasoned women who were once very much loved.

The show is slow in starting - in building to the fire and lust that's the essence of tango, but once it gets going there are very impressive duets and ensemble numbers. One of the great joys of tango is watching the amazingly intricate footwork. And that's no exception here. Two standout moments are when a trio (two men, a woman) do a racing tango.

The dancing is story driven, and that tends to drag the 90-minute production down a bit.

Under Omar Pacheco's direction, it's a bit West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweet Charity (the sort of "Big Spender" tribute number), Rags and Ragtime. There are Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Bob Fosse influences in the exhilarating dance moments by couples and the ensemble.

The big payoff is the finale and encores when the spirited company gets roarin' hot, and sparks fly. Needless to say, the audience goes wild. Tanguera would have benefited with more such spectacular, adrenaline-pumping dancing in the story portion. However, it's a helluva way to end the show.

The full-scale production with set design and colorful costumes boasts a cast of over 30 superlative dancers and singers, and has an original score by Gerardo Gardelin and songs by Eladia Blazques (with lyrics translated in the Playbill). The production is deftly aided by the 12-piece orchestra under the direction of Lisandro Androver on bandoneon.

Among the standout lead dancers are hunk Esteban Domenichini, beauty Rocio de Los Santos, and veteran tango aficionado Oscar Martinez Pey in addition to singers Marianella and a sprightly Maria Nieves, who can still cut some quite intricate footwork.

Another star of the show is the lighting by Ariel Del Mastro which is nothing short of jaw-dropping. European and South American lighting designers approach lighting much differently than Broadway's by paying more attention to how lighting can contribute to the telling and atmosphere of the story. Del Mastro's bio states that he's "considered the best lighting designer in Argentina." That should be amended to "one of the best lighting designers anywhere."

The co-presenter, with Michael Brenner and Daniel Barenboim, of Tanguera is veteran former principal dancer Paul Szilard, who's devoted the latter decades to presenting dance companies -- from Alvin Ailey, ABT and Martha Graham -- around the world. His name always guarantees dance devotees will be quite satisfied.