““Ladies and Gentle Men” triumphed with even more treacherous material. Set to a skillful arrangement of songs, stories and audio excerpts from the 1970s album and after-school special “Free to Be … You and Me,” it managed to endorse the questioning of fixed gender roles while showing scarier complications. Men in suits right out of “Mad Men” and women in pretty dresses stripped down to children’s swimwear for a high-energy dance of gender-neutral utopia. Yet even here the message was ambiguous. Mr. McIntyre is no propagandist.”
“Featuring a cast of three men in suits and ties and three women in pouffy bright-colored party dresses, the piece manages to find freshness and vibrancy in rough-and-tumble moves, while having to cope with material … that nobly cheerleads for avoiding gender stereotypes, accepting those who are different, and letting each person’s individuality emerge triumphant.”
CHOREOGRAPHY: Trey McIntyre
MUSIC: The New Seekers, Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda, Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones, Alan Cumming, Billy De Wolfe, Bobby Morse, Diana Ross, Of Montreal, Kimya Dawson, Fleet Foxes, and tUnE-yArDs
COSTUMES: Andrea Lauer
LIGHTING: Travis C. Richardson
PREMIERE COMPANY: Trey McIntyre Project
DATE OF PREMIERE: 08/08/2012
LENGTH: 36 minutes
NUMBER OF DANCERS: 6
