Dames at Sea
Closed 2h 10m
Dames at Sea
79

Dames at Sea NYC Reviews and Tickets

79%
(242 Ratings)
Positive
81%
Mixed
15%
Negative
4%
Members say
Entertaining, Delightful, Funny, Dated, Fluffy

About the Show

Coming to Broadway for the first time ever and directed by three-time Tony Award-nominee Randy Skinner, this is a classic comedic celebration of the golden era of movie musicals.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (242)

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77 Reviews | 18 Followers
100
Delightful, Entertaining, Great tapping

See it if you enjoy a slight farce on the old timey musical plots. Plus tap dancing that is out of this world!

Don't see it if you don't enjoy campy, fluffy, over the top classic Broadway romance stories.

57 Reviews | 21 Followers
100
Delightful, Entertaining, Funny, Great acting

See it if you like musicals made in the old-fashioned way with love intrigue, good story line, fabulous singing small casts

Don't see it if you want drama and not a lot of singing

58 Reviews | 8 Followers
99
Absorbing, Entertaining, Refreshing, Romantic

See it if you love tap dancing and perfect couples!

Don't see it if you don't like cliche love stories and big dances.

123 Reviews | 211 Followers
95
Funny, Must see, Delightful

See it if so much fun! Lesli Margherita is hilarious! Great classic musical

Don't see it if you don't like tap dancing. Many jokes are outdated and about people from the early 20th century

112 Reviews | 11 Followers
95
Clever, Delightful, Entertaining, Funny, Great writing

See it if you enjoy campy, fun, sweet, silliness.

Don't see it if you don't like campy, fun, sweet, silliness.

50 Reviews | 7 Followers
92
Clever

See it if You can appreciate a spoof of 1930's movie musicals, like those with Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell, you love tap dancing and ensemble work

Don't see it if You don't like musicals

113 Reviews | 20 Followers
92
Clever, Funny, Great writing, Intelligent, Masterful

See it if You enjoy parodies

Don't see it if You don't like parodies and want original classical musicals

61 Reviews | 11 Followers
90
Enchanting, Funny, Refreshing, Clever, Delightful

See it if You love tap dancing and the classic 1940's type musical.

Don't see it if You hate dancing and a light and airy show.

Critic Reviews (42)

The New York Times
October 22nd, 2015

"The way the book merrily hopscotches from cliché to cliché can still raise smiles. But 'Dames' ultimately founders on our familiarity, not with the genre it plays with like a cat’s toy, but with the long history, since its creation, of similar simulations of old-school entertainments. Even housed in Broadway’s smallest theater, this miniature musical, with a cast you could fit in a dinghy, seems just a little, well, at sea."
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Time Out New York
October 22nd, 2015

"It lands like a harmless piece of wet fluff. The first 20 minutes of wide-eyed antics are cute; then your mind starts to wander. 'Dames at Sea's' mild pastiche is passable but passé—imagine a revival, half a century from now, of a Fringe show about the ’80s—and it’s presented with tongue so far in cheek that it can’t say much at all."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
October 22nd, 2015

"Instead of sticking close to the presentational style of Busby Berkeley spectaculars, 'Dames' literally belittled itself, making do with a cast of six and an orchestra of three on a stage barely big enough to contain Bernadette Peters. It would seem to be a category error to bring material so conceived to Broadway, and the production that just opened at the Helen Hayes, much as you root for it, fails to argue otherwise."
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The Wall Street Journal
October 22nd, 2015

"What’s not to like? Nothing whatsoever—but there isn’t enough to love about 'Dames at Sea,' which may have seemed sufficiently witty a half-century ago but has long since been outclassed by the encyclopedically knowing musical-comedy spoofery of 'The Drowsy Chaperone.' Compared with that big-brain homage, 'Dames' isn’t much more clever than a college show, and its parodies steer too close to their models to be other than mildly amusing."
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Deadline
October 22nd, 2015

"‘Dames At Sea’ is a lot of fun and a tribute to the city’s inexhaustible pool of inexhaustible talent, if not actual stars…Broadway today is awash in nostalgia in the form of revivals, reboots and parodies, all done on a far larger scale and offering considerably more bang, or tap, for the buck. And good as they are, the dancers never let us forget just how hard they’re working to please us."
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New York Daily News
October 22nd, 2015

"'Dames at Sea' is a mid-1960s musical trifle that works overtime to be cheeky good fun. Thanks to a cast with twinkle-toes and polished pipes, it succeeds — for a while. Before long, though, monotony sets in and won’t go away. Even top-notch tap-dancing can get repetitive...'Dames' doesn’t make a big splash or sink. It treads water."
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Variety
October 22nd, 2015

"The new leading lady of 'Dames at Sea' is no Bernadette Peters. There’s nothing wrong with this revival that Peters, who played the role of Ruby in the original, couldn’t fix. But musical theater stars of her caliber don’t grow on trees, and although newcomer Eloise Kropp is a power tapper par excellence, she hasn’t the saucy charm of a Broadway Baby like Ruby — or the magnetic appeal of a star like Peters."
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The Hollywood Reporter
October 22nd, 2015

"'Dames at Sea' reinvents one of those big-screen spectacles as a shrunken stage musical — a baby Busby Berkeley if you will — with an appealing cast of six that makes its featherweight pleasures infectious...A sweet candy morsel serving unapologetically empty calories."
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