Entertainment

Corn Stock set to dance with ‘Dames’

A dance extravaganza opening Friday at Corn Stock Theatre both parodies and pays homage to the great 1930s Busby Berkeley movies in which an understudy steps into a leading role and becomes a star.

"Dames at Sea" follows the fortunes of a girl named Ruby (Kelsey Burd) who arrives on Broadway from the American hinterland determined to tap her way to stardom. She gets a job in the chorus of a musical starring a tempermental diva, Mona (Katie McLuckie).

Meanwhile, Ruby is falling in love with Dick (Jarod Hazzard), a sailor and aspiring songwriter to whom Mona also has taken a liking.

Additional characters include a ship captain who is Mona’s old boyfriend (Bob McLaughlin), the jaded chorus girl Joan (Ingrid Weiman) and Dick’s friend Lucky (Matt Stubbs).

The musical comedy originally opened off-off-Broadway in 1966 starring then-newcomer Bernadette Peters before enjoying successful runs off-Broadway and in London, a television adaptation and a number of revivals.

Director Mike Reams calls the musical "a wonderful fun and energetic show filled with tap dancing and spectacle."

"The singing and dancing is really something special and will leave the audience tapping their own toes," Reams says of the show, which also features Amanda Bishop, Stacey Brewer, Kara Grove, Emily LaHood, Jennifer Pugh, Laura Punke, Jennye Stirlen and Sarah Beth Tolbert as "The Tapping Dames."

The show’s music director is Connie Tumminelli, and Erica Franken is choreographer.