Likely to be familiar from the movies is the tale of Pittsburgh steel mill welder Alexandra “Alex” Owens, wearer of the iconic one-shoulder sweaters in 1983’s Flashdance. Despite the box office underperformance of its kindred spirits — Footloose, Fame and Saturday Night Fever — here comes another music-based flick trying to make the transition to a stage show, and perhaps to Broadway.
In the works and on tour since 2008, with at least one planned New York opening scratched, the stage show follows the movie’s plot fairly closely with a few key supporting roles given more substance.
As you undoubtedly recall, Alex works at a mill by day, dances seductively at a working-class bar by night and, in between, she yearns to be admitted to the Shipley Academy where she can get some actual dance training. In the movie’s screenplay, by Palm Beach resident Tom Hedley (and Joe Eszterhas), she gains the attention of Nick Hurley (a warm-voiced Adam J. Rennie), the scion of the family that own the mill. For the stage show, his role has been enlarged by Hedley. Despite being born into privilege, Nick too has to prove himself, being thrown into a management position and required to fire a sizeable portion of the workforce.
Less interesting and less plausible is the plight of Alex’s ambitious, but skittish and naïve sidekick Gloria. Eager for stardom, she lands in the clutches of the lecherous bar owner down the street. The subplot is hokey and it takes stage time and attention away from Alex.
Fortunately, director-choreographer Sergio Trujillo has the services of young, mop-topped whirlwind Karli Dinardo as Alex. Charismatic enough to have us rooting for her character’s far-fetched ambitions, she also dances with limitless kinetic energy and sings with full-throttle power. Trujillo and Dinardo recreate the climactic audition dance solo, and while it seems very unlikely, seeing it almost makes it believable that Alex could gain a slot in the hallowed academy.
Musically, the show is an odd mix of the familiar and new songs written in a faux-’80 style. To the handful of numbers retained from the movie (“Maniac,” “Manhunt,” “What a Feeling”), tunesmiths Robbie Roth and Robert Cary add a dozen and a half more, largely in the pulsing, beat-heavy mode of the period. Most of them leave no impression, but a couple of standard Broadway book songs — one for Nick and his employees over their income inequality (“Justice”) and another for an elderly former dancer who encourages Alex (“Experience”) — give the show some uplift.
Visually, Flashdance, The Musical hardly looks like a road show. Its brawny, state-of-the-art scenic design come from Klara Zieglerova (Jersey Boys, Sister Act), whose industrial, sliding panels work well with Peter Nigrini’s flashy projections and Howell Binkley’s rock show lighting.
The show at the Kravis Center this week may not be high art, but it is much improved compared to the production that played the Broward Center a couple of seasons ago. Entertaining enough, but probably too generic to last on Broadway, this Flashdance will do for those in search of a flashy, high-energy, somewhat corny time-capsule evening out.
FLASHDANCE, THE MUSICAL, Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday. Tickets: From $25. Call: 561-832-7469.