Dance Theater Hit:“Ain’t Done Bad” Opens at Pershing Square Signature Theater
The performance, which just started its eight-week run, is entirely sung with no spoken dialgoue. It’s the third Broadway show in that format to open this year.
| 19 Jul 2024 | 06:58
The company of Ain’t Done Bad, now in a limited off Broadway run at the Pershing Square Signature Theater. Photo: Matthew Murphy
Some of the stars of “Ain’t Done Bad” (from left): Ian Spring, Adrian Lee and the play’s conceivor, director and cherographer Jakob Karr. Photo: Matthew Murphy (
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The stars of “Ain’t Done Bad” (from left): Ian Spring, Adrian Lee, and Jacob Karr.
Three does not a trend make, but “Ain’t Done Bad,” which has just opened at the Pershing Sq. Signature Center, is the third theatrical dance experience of the year: a stage play withdancers telling their stories through song without spoken words.
First, of course, was “Illinoise,” which won choreographer Justin Peck a Tony Award. That was performed to the music of Sufjan Stevens: though with spoken words, pairs of singers did perform and if eventually moved from off Broadway to Broadway. Next up was “Message In a Bottle,” which had a successful limited run at City Center. That one was performed by Kate Prince’s fantastic dance company to the recorded music of Sting.
And now comes “Ain’t Done Bad,” an all-dance show conceived, directed and performed by Jakob Karr to the music of a proudly queer cowboy named Orville Peck (no relation to Justin).
This explores the experience of growing up, coming out, and finding your authentic self. “I started working on this,” says Karr, “for the Orlando Fringe Festival” (where it became a hit).
“I’ve always loved country music, but Peck was not well known, and didn’t align with a lot of cowboy mythology. Both Peck and Karr are 34 and, says Karr, “we have a great working relationship.”
Eventually, Peck did start creating buzz and even did duets with fans like Kylie Minogue and Willie Nelson. (“Cowboys are commonly frequently fond of each other, the two “outlaws” croon) And his albums started selling well. As for this show, its creator says the audience will “go on a journey with a main character coming of age, leaving home, and finding out who he really is.
“Seeing two men dance slowly really helps him,” says Karr. The show, as he explains, is “fully danced, we don’t speak a word, and there’s not even a narrator. But I think we have a well-rounded. progressive production.”
Karr grew up, he says, mostly loving the country ladies of the 90s, from Reba onward. What he didn’t see, until Orville Peck became known, was that just like others, cowboys came in different colors and different sexual preferences.
Reviewing the show, the New York Times wrote, “Peck’s music, with his Elvis croon drifting through a spaghetti western sonic landscape, is inherently dramatic. It supports both the story and the dancing well, supplying heart ache and homoeroticism, galloping horsepower and pedal-steel romance. The choreography moves in parallel to the lyrics that don’t directly apply and underlines plenty of those that do, like “the love that you need will never be found at home.”
One of the show’s producers, Patti Maurer, is a former dancer herself and had seen Karr’s work before. “His choreography is amazing, she says, “he has this uncanny ability to tell a story through movement. Jakob can bridge all the different worlds, thematically and allows each dancer–they all play roles–to shine.”
The company believes they are opening in the right place, as in New York City. “We got the cream of the crop just showing up for auditions,” she adds, “seeing almost 200 dancers.”
So now, New Yorkers get a third show of the year that tells its unique story with lyrical songs but without dialogue. There are plenty of musical words coming from a country western singer we will all get to know and appreciate. Hey, if Willie Nelson loves and sings with Orville Peck, I am all in. The show is in a limited run at the Pershing Square Signature Center.