Shall We Dance?
(originally printed in Odeum December 2009)

Constance Towers performed that show stopping number on Broadway every night for over a year as she taught Yul Brynner the polka in the 1977 revival of The King and I. Now, more than 30 years later, Towers is being taught the polka, tango, waltz and other steps in the play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri.

Not only is the actress enthusiastic about the play, she also thinks the playwright is “one of the most beautiful looking human beings I’ve ever seen. He’s Flawless! And he’s extremely intellectual and interesting. It’s a perfectly crafted play, and the humor grows out of who these people are. He has had tremendous success with this play all over the world.

“It’s one of those plays that you think about the next day and the day after,” says Ms. Towers. “It’s a wonderful experience for an audience, and for the actors because there is a tremendous amount of tension. It’s poignant and at the same time hilariously funny.”

Towers plays an older southern woman, living in St. Petersburg, Florida. “She’s lonely,” the actress explains “and she decides that rather than going to a dance studio to learn about dance she will hire a dance instructor to come to her home. He is also a very lonely person, disappointed in the course of his life, and he is also wildly eccentric.”

Jason Graae plays the dance instructor, Michael, who has moved to Florida to try to put his life back together. “His views are shocking to her,” says Towers “so it’s a battle of wills between two people who think in totally different ways and then they find this common ground which is what makes the play so special. It will break your heart but also leave you laughing too.”

For many years, Towers was an established Broadway star having won praise for her performance in the 1966 Lincoln Centre revival of Show Boat. She has also made many television appearances in everything from General Hospital to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Her love remains with the theatre, and she still admits to being awed when she visits New York. “I still get excited when I walk down Broadway and turn onto 44th Street or 45th street to go see a show. It’s a very special experience.”

The actress is prepared for a winter visit to Brampton. “I was born in Whitefish, Montana so 20 below zero means nothing to me!”

Constance Towers and Jason Graae star in Richard Alfieri’s play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at the Rose Theatre for seven performances, January 13 to 17.

Mark Andrew Lawrence presents selections from his library of over 2,000 original cast recordings on Front Row Centre heard Saturday mornings at 8 and Sunday mornings at 9 on 103.9 Proud-Fm (www.proudfm.com.) His very first Broadway show was The King and I starring Yul Brynner and Constance Towers.