Married dance partners extraordinaire Marge and Gower Champion tango with each other in their first starring role, a forgotten dance musical -- and surprisingly honest comedy -- about the frustrations, jealousies and terrors of marriage and new parenthood. Broadway dancers Pamela and Chuck Hubbard (the Champions, art imitating life) are at a high point in their career. But when Pamela collapses backstage after opening night, it's clear things are going to change in the Hubbard marriage once baby makes three (and glamorous understudy Sybil (Monica Lewis) makes four). Originally slated to star Red Skelton and Vera-Ellen, Marge and Gower Champion signed on instead, with Gower contributing much of the choreography, after recovering from a bout of appendicitis in rehearsal. In a musical full of fun numbers, the most striking might be "Casbah", a ballet parable about a mousy tourist (Marge) being seduced by a black-shirted swain (Gower) in an exotic, faraway bar. The footloose interplay between the two characters is shot through with a tart undercurrent of mutual understanding, frustration, and magnetic connection -- the kind of pas de deux only a married couple can truly understand.

By Violet LeVoit