First Nighter: “Paint Your Wagon” Revival Paints Town Red-Hot
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First Nighter: “Paint Your Wagon” Revival Paints Town Red-Hot

Though I know de Mille choreographed the 1951 version, I hardly remember it dance for dance, step for step. So I can’t comment on whether Denis Jones keeps track of whatever is recorded or recalled of her work. I can say he’s done well with several numbers in which the men show their prowess and the dance hall girls, arriving in act two, throw a mean can-can. Indeed, when the men join the women for the can-can, Jones turns that into something suddenly and surprisingly rousing. He also does nicely by a pas de deux Kevin Munhall and Darien Crago execute during a musical break in the plaintive “Another Autumn.”

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Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story
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Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story

Director Denis Jones has crafted it all into a sleek package, with the kind of musically satisfying staging in which the bump of the last song immediately leads into the following scene. This helps the show pack in more music than you would think possible, and it does so in an authentic-sounding way.

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