The New York International Fringe Festival Presents

JOEY VARIATIONS: A PLAY WITH DANCE

The Theater at 14th Street YMCA
344 East 14th St.
NY NY 10003
12-28 August 2016

Written and directed by: Joe Spano
Choreographed by Tom Gold
Featuring Matthew Hardy, Bianca Leigh, Julie Hays

A talented dancer is ruining his career with substance abuse. His Russian émigré artistic director and a transgender therapist must help him let go of the pain he is hiding in order to free him to be the best artist he can be.

An artist’s struggle to maintain discipline in the face of terrible tragedy is a rich dramatic vein to mine. It should be a moving and inspiring play. Unfortunately, in JOEY VARIATIONS, it is not.

The choreography and the dancing are mediocre at best making it difficult to care if Joey continues to dance or not. Better dancing might have revealed more depth to the character of Joey, but as it is, it adds nothing.

The pacing is plodding, with large unnecessary pauses between each sentence. The Russian character only sounds Russian occasionally. The projections are distracting and irrelevant. At one point, Joey is reading from his journal so a picture of a book with writing in it appears on the screen. It is not the writing of a contemporary person, but is an antique piece written in 1870! The projection of flowing satin in varying colors looks like it belongs in a feminine products commercial.

The best part of JOEY VARIATIONS is the character of Rita, the transgender therapist, and her story feels forced into a play it doesn’t fit. Because Bianca Leigh has such a great presence, her struggle is much more interesting than the titular Joey’s, but it isn’t relevant to Joey’s story.

In a festival of 40 shows, there are bound to be some duds. This is a Fringe show to miss.

- Jean Tait -