Wow – Irina on her toes at City Center – 5/9

Haglund was gobsmacked by Irina Dvorovenko's first entrance as Vera Baronova in the Encores! production of Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes at City Center, and he was still gobsmacked at the end of the evening.  What a remarkable and stunning musical theater debut Irina is having this week — all under the unbearable heat and glare of New York's bright lights.  Just to be clear – she stole the show tonight. 

Who would have guessed that Irina could deliver lines as though she was the one who wrote them?  Perfect comedic timing. Dangerous levels of glamour.  She had the audience eating out of her palm.  When she demanded "I need shoes!" and threw a shoe at her assistant, she spoke as if nothing less than Louboutins or Balenciagas would do.  Her dialogue exchanges with Joaquin De Luz, who portrayed the temperamental Konstantine Morrosine and held his own with every other actor on stage, were as good as their pas de deux in Act One.

Watching from the center of the top balcony, Haglund felt that he had met Irina's lovely tutu before, perhaps in a Le Corsaire performance some time ago.  Let's take a look:

Here is Irina in her Vera Baronova tutu with Joaquin:

Joan Marcus

And here she is in her Medora tutu with Jose Manuel Carreno:

And here she is in her Medora tutu with Angel Corella.

All three are under significantly different lighting which could account for the different colors, but the sequin patterns seem to be the same.  She was a knockout in the costume tonight whether it was repurposed or not.

The show is pretty entertaining, but Haglund wasn't overly impressed with some of the other lead performers.  Their acting sometimes seemed a little canned.  

The performance of Slaughter on Tenth Avenue didn't get the punch from the supporting dance cast that NYCB's artists have delivered to it this season.  Irina was wonderful, but her partner, Shonn Wiley – a pretty good hoofer – seemed a little uncomfortable with some of the partnering in the famous Balanchine choreography. That's understandable.

Normally, one might remark how Irina and Joaquin bravely jumped outside of their comfort zones with this project, but they both looked so incredibly comfortable delivering lines, doing a little dancing, then delivering more lines, that it was hard to believe that this was not a natural path.  And Joaquin's Russian accented English – not bad.

The show runs through Sunday and there are mostly balcony seats left.  Sitting in the balcony of City Center is challenging because the sightlines are so steep, but you tend to adjust quickly.