A RING IN BROOKLYN REVIEW QUOTES

A Ring in Brooklyn is really about unfulfilled or unfulfilling romantic dreams, you may find yourself as this reviewer did in the palm of its bejeweled hand. Director / choreographer Joshua Finkel stages “If I Were You” as a slow dance for three, with Gina gazing lovingly into Tommy’s eyes as Tommy gazes past her into Smitty’s, their three hands joined as they slow dance and dream.
It is quite a number, and quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Finkel and company making the very most of each song’s potential, as in the Act Two opener “Disco Roosevelt,” which has the entire cast doing their very best Saturday Night Fever moves to Finkel’s inspired choreography. Still, the cast assembled on the NoHo Arts Center stage could hardly be better. Finkel deserves major snaps as choreographer for integrating so much dance into A Ring In Brooklyn’s eclectic blend of songs, whether in ensemble numbers or more intimate twosomes.

The cohesive, talented ensemble helmed by Joshua Finkel's direction puts forth a valiant effort in each and every number, and in so doing, succeeds in delighting the audience. The song and dance numbers revisit that formative time and place in all of our lives, drawing deep emotions from the audience, throughout the performance.

During this well-paced production, helmed and choreographed by Joshua Finkel. The actors sell Finkel’s choreography with style in the double entendre–filled “Magic Wand.” and the end of act one. In particular, the first act closer, “So Not Seventeen,” in which
the three ladies create a showstopper as the trio catfights its way through Dodson’s wickedly ingenious lyrics.

It's a clever piece of storytelling that also includes some surprising plot twists. The operative word here is fun. Dodson's lyrics and Alan Ross Fleishman's laid-back blend of jazz, disco and R&B music make for easy listening, and director Joshua Finkel's cast turn in solid performances

Director Joshua Finkel,. is good with the actors, evidently valuing emotional specificity and honesty over caricature. The cast is winning and this is (ANMT's) their first full production of a new work. That it shows real potential is a small, happy miracle.

With direction and choreography by Joshua Finkel, A RING IN BROOKLYN is indeed a real fuggin’ winner! Among the many milestones one goes through in a domestic life, those four (perhaps longer) years of education between secondary school (aka “junior high”) and college (providing if one ever gets that far), is the most awkward times in one’s life. (It also provides the most comedy relief in artistic media pieces!) This musical is diverting, charming, and even a but somber at times! However, its what “youse guys” should see! And after those those long years of being out of school, will everything that wasn’t resolved finally find its conflicts settled? As they say in Bay Ridge, Flatbush, and all points in between, “Fuggetaboutitt!

(Walking distance from the Red Line North Hollywood Metro Station Just east of Lankershim Blvd on Magnolia Blvd)

GINA GANNELLI-KORNBLATT	GABRIELLE WAGNER
GORDY KORNBLATT	MIKE IRIZARRY
JENNA JOY BERENSTEIN	JORDAN KAI BURNETT
RONNY FUSTO	JOHNNY CANNIZZARO
M ITCHELL "SMITTY" SMITTELLI	MARK SHUNOCK
TRACY BENDERSBY	ANNA HANSON
TOMMY LIPNIKI	MATT VALLE