Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Germán Cornejo and company burn up the floor in the crowd-pleasing if overlong TANGO AFTER DARK

• By drediman
• February 27, 2025
• No Comments

Earlier this week, I attended The Joyce Theater’s presentation of Tango After Dark, a two-act evening of tango created by World Champion dancer Germán Cornejo, who also stars in the piece alongside his partner Gisela Galeassi (the New York premiere of the production is supported by The Harkness Foundation for Dance and is part of Carnegie Hall’s Nuestros sonidos festival). The duo is joined onstage by four other talented couples, as well as an onstage band and a vocalist, who together celebrate the vibrancy and sensuality of the popular and distinctively rhythmic Argentinian dance form.

There’s no mistaking that Tango After Dark strives for commercial appeal, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’d like to think that there’s a place for such types of endeavors (in many ways, the production calls to mind Forever Tango, which successfully played Broadway for numerous engagements), which aim to entertain wide-ranging audiences in an accessible manner in one fell swoop. I’m happy to report that Tango After Dark achieves this goal. The production is a veritable crowd-pleaser, thanks in part to Cornejo’s choreography, which is grounded in tradition and packaged to a sheen for contemporary viewers. The dancing throughout is invariably flashy and dynamic, with tango’s requisite “give-and-take” tension and drama on full display. Indeed, the dancers burn up the floor with panache and impressive precision, if not necessarily authentic passion, volatility, and danger. Each couple is given numerous chances to strut their stuff in the spotlight — which they seize with lusty eagerness — in a series of polished and eye-catching duets and group numbers.

Smartly, the music-making takes center stage. Those somewhat familiar with tango will recognize many of the compositions by Astor Piazzolla, which sound glorious as played by the excellent onstage band. Antonela Cirillo — the evening’s featured vocalist and upbeat de facto host — can belt with the best of them, but at the consequence of mystique and sultry nuances, qualities particularly missed in a show with a title like Tango After Dark. With a running time of about two hours, the production could have fared better with some editing and sans the intermission and an unnecessary encore — a tight 75-minute run-time would have hit the sweet spot — especially when some of the individual numbers start to become indistinguishable from each other (despite the plentiful costume changes). With a seductive genre of dance like tango, sometimes it’s best to leave audiences panting and wanting more.

RECOMMENDED

TANGO AFTER DARK
Dance
The Joyce Theater
2 hours (including an intermission)
Through March 9