Down Around Brown Town (Schimmel Center)

BOTTOM LINE: well worth your $15 for incredible dancing plus the music of James Brown equaling some damn fine entertainment.

Loved this show. I’d happily recommend this to all my friends. It is a solid hour of some fine dancing and singing celebrating the music of James Brown. That’s it. Pretty simple and a whole lot of fun.

Down Around Brown Town has a decent sized cast of dancers, a few singers, and even a little something extra. This production was the unplugged version, no elaborate sets this round, just a bench and raw talent. I do wish the singers had microphones to match the recorded music, but the real focus of the show is the dancing. There isn’t really a story other than moving through the history of James Brown year by year ending in the early 1970’s. It is simply a series of song and dance numbers; the dancing is what won me over. These are some very talented dancers combining ballet, hip-hop, and just some solid moves. Some pieces were absolutely beautiful and some were just freakin’ cool.

The only thing missing from the show was an audience, I caught the first production which was a Wednesday night at 10pm, so I can understand the low turnout, but with more shows coming up I’d love to see it with the house rockin’. So get on up, get on out with some friends and see this celebration of the godfather of soul. For $15 it's worth it.

Down Around Brown Town plays at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, 13 Spruce St. at the end of Park Row near Gold St. Show times: Thursday, August 14th at 5:30pm; Friday, August 15th at 8:15pm; Saturday, August 16th at 4:45pm; Sunday, August 17th at noon. For more info and tickets visit fullamo-productions.info or fringenyc.org.

Review by writerbeasy.