Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

'Dance Lessons' takes Steps to Comfort

In the world of theater, an old-fashioned, one-set, two-character comedy is as valuable as gold.

No, it's not going to advance the art form nor get critics gushing. But given the modest payroll and the play's crowd-pleasing ability, it's likely to have a future in theaters all over America.

Richard Alfieri's Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, now at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, is one of those ''new'' old-fashioned comedies. Nothing ground-breaking here, nothing close to theatrical perfection, just an odd couple discovering how much they have in common.

Yet thanks to Alfieri's comic touch, director Arthur Allan Seidelman's fleet-footed staging and the assured, multilayered performances of stars Rue McClanahan and Mark Hamill, Six Dance Lessons becomes a light, escapist tonic for these dark days.

Fighting Loneliness

McClanahan, who spent many a season in TV's version of Miami on The Golden Girls, this time inhabits set designer Roy Christopher's handsome, ocean-view condo at St. Petersburg Beach. She plays Lily Harrison, a longtime Baptist minister's wife and veteran teacher, a woman who finds that even the most spectacular sunset views (the work of lighting designer Tom Ruzika) don't assuage loneliness.

Enter Hamill's Michael Minetti, a dance instructor who initially hides personal details but later 'fesses up to being ''a passive-aggressive queen with a bad attitude.'' How bad? When Lily tries to get him fired in the very first scene, he pronounces her a "tight-assed old biddy.'' Oops.

In truth, there's not a lot of dance in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Choreographer Kay Cole gives McClanahan and Hamill some nice basic moves -- swing, tango, waltz, Foxtrot, '60s ''contemporary'' -- which the actors execute just well enough to look like ordinary folks (he's a little paunchy, she's a senior who loves getting glammed up) who enjoy dancing.

Tender-Hearted

At its heart -- and it is very tender-hearted, despite its sometimes bawdy language -- the play is about the gradual unveiling of secrets, the shedding of emotional scar tissue, the willingness to seek and offer comfort. The two actors -- a moving McClanahan and the droll Hamill -- adroitly communicate all of that.

Structurally, Six Dance Lessons is perhaps too tidy. Its first four scenes follow an almost identical pattern, as Michael and Lily squabble, make up, start dancing. Then Lily's downstairs neighbor calls to beef about the racket. Lily spouts a few comic put-downs, changes the subject, hangs up, and the two dance 'til the lights fade out. Spice it with variety, please.

The Miami Herald :: March 24, 2003