“Take the Lead” explores the power of dance to change lives

Pierre Dulaine was a champion ballroom dancer who began teaching ballroom to teens in the New York City school system. Dulaine’s story forms the basis of the new musical, Take the Lead, at Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse. It’s a lively, dance-heavy musical designed to lift one’s spirits — and at that, it succeeds!

Dulaine (Tam Mutu) runs an upper-class dance school for teens with a partner, Alan Ford (Matthew Risch), entering them in ballroom competitions where they are trophy winners. Dulaine is up for a hosting gig on a televised dance competition series and is neglecting the school. After a chance meeting with teenaged Rock (Vincent Jamal Hooper), Dulaine meets the acting principal of Drake High School, Arianna Rey (Adrienne Bailon-Houghton), and agrees to teach his art, dancing, to a class of seniors including Rock.

The rough-edged kids of Drake High are neither as motivated nor as obedient as his former dance pupils, resisting Dulaine’s style of teaching. Once they try dancing as couples, though, they realize that they can be as expressive in the classic ballroom style as they are in hip-hop. When a school administrator (David Jennings) seeks to cut arts education at Drake High, Dulaine promises to show the value of arts in the school by entering his new pupils in an upcoming competition against his former students.

Ballroom dance also brings out romantic feelings in some unlikely couples in the class. Rock and La Rhette (Savy Jackson), both loners, are from feuding families. Dance thaws the ice between them, even as it alienates Rock from his gang leader brother Daniel (Deon Releford-Lee). Monster (SeQuoiia), a gentle giant, is paired with ugly-duckling Caitlin (Grace Slear), who skips classes at her regular school to be in Dulaine’s class. Miguel (Kevin Trinio Perdido) and Eddie (Brandon O’Neal Bomer) are moths around the flame of Lola (Megan Elyse Fulmer); fashionista Gucci (Salome Smith) is paired with proto-gay Kurd (Christian Whan). At the competition, the kids add their own flair to the classic ballroom dance categories in costumes they designed themselves.

The score, by Elliah Heifetz and Zeniba Now, is solid. The dance numbers, especially the introductory “Watch Me Move” in which the worlds of ballroom and hip-hop dance are matched in a compare-and-contrast style that shows off the best of both worlds. In the “Competition Sequence” the Drake High team gets to show their fusion of styles against Dulaine’s old students moving in more classical patterns.

Arianna shows her strong dedication to her students and their futures in her two big numbers, “Hold, Please” and “My Kids,” while Dulaine’s arc moves from the self-absorbed “More Than” to his reprise of “My Kids.” Rock and La Rhette bond at a subway station in a Fred-and-Ginger number, “Let’s Begin”, while numbers where Dulaine is teaching the Drake High kids the basics of ballroom are both funny and warmly satisfying.

The biggest problem, though, is in the book by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins. While the kids’ lines are to the point, when the adults have to talk to each other things seem to go flat. This is not attributable to director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli, who is perfectly capable of creating lively scenes and dances which the cast perform with an readily relatable ease.

Take the Lead is not a perfect musical, but it is a quite good one. With a strong cast and a lively and varied score, it makes for a perfectly enjoyable evening in the theatre. If dance is your thing — or even if you wish you could dance — I recommend taking the trip to Millburn to spend time with Pierre Dulaine and his students as they learn to Take the Lead!

Take the Lead is presented at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn through Apr. 27, 2025. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to papermill.org.