Review: A Flat-Footed Take the Lead at Paper Mill Playhouse

If you ever wondered what a mash-up of Dangerous Minds and The Sound of Music might look like, head out to Paper Mill Playhouse, where Take the Lead is having its world premiere. Based on a true story that inspired a 2006 movie, this new musical follows the familiar formula of a naive teacher who turns around the lives of underprivileged students through an appreciation of the arts. Laden with recognizable tropes and unpalatable stereotypes, though, this dance-heavy dramedy never finds its footing.

In 2002, the vainglorious ballroom instructor Pierre Dulaine (Tam Mutu) longs for a judging spot on an unnamed upcoming reality competition series, which he describes as “the American Idol of dance.” His arrogance costs him both his ritzy training studio on the Upper East Side and his relationship with partner Alan Ford (Matthew Risch), who tires of his amour propre. As penance, he volunteers to spearhead an elective program at a Bronx high school, which bears all the hallmarks of underfunded and overburdened educational collapse. His charges, weaned on breakdance, stepping, and stomp, regard him warily.

Pierre hopes to instill the values of classical dancing to his new students, an ambition shared, if not with especial enthusiasm, by the school’s tough-as-nails interim principal, Arianna Rey (Adrienne Bailon-Houghton). But the kids have got more on their plate than learning pas de deux. A primary subplot involves the talented pair of La Rhette (Savy Jackson) and Rock (Vincent Jamal Hooper), whose growing attraction and flair on the dance floor are hampered by a complex family feud. In a moment of inspiration, and to appease the school’s weary superintendent, Pierre decides to enter his motley crew in a prestigious teenage ballroom competition, setting up the usual David and Goliath story.

Librettists Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins have never met a cliché they don’t wholeheartedly embrace. Pierre charts an expected trajectory from pompous egotist to warm-hearted mentor. Similarly, the exasperated Arianna learns to let go of her preconceived notions and find benefit in the unexpected. The romance between Rock and La Rhette heats up and cools off, only to rekindle in the right climactic moment. Most of the students barely warrant a backstory, which makes their journey from hostility to pride in their accomplishments seem hollow.

Perhaps more questionably, Take the Lead engages in a noisome savior narrative that finds a white educator coming into an inner-city school, populated predominantly by Black and Brown students, and turning their lives around through enlightenment of European cultural practices. Although the kids initially protest that they have their own traditions of music and movement, these arguments are quickly subsumed by the foxtrot, jitterbug, and waltz. The material buys wholeheartedly into the perspective that Pierre’s presence facilitates a fundamental change in attitude that couldn’t be achieved on its own, a viewpoint that feels desperately outmoded in 2025.

The largely forgettable score by Elijah Heifetz and Zeniba Now does no favors, and performances under Christopher Gattelli’s direction rarely rise above a general level. Mutu makes an initial positive impression in Pierre’s preening guise, but his characterization flattens out as he turns over a sincere leap. Bailon-Houghton plays one frayed nerve throughout most of the show, leaning into the stereotype of an educator pushed to the brink by budget cuts and hopeless circumstances. Both sing well—Bailon-Houghton’s power-pop vocals are especially memorable—but their material is tired and hackneyed. Arianna’s lachrymose ballad “My Kids” is truly risible.

Jackson and Hooper generate genuine chemistry as the star-crossed would-be lovers, and Jackson especially finds layers that are not in the script. “Better Off Alone,” La Rhette’s first-act examination of life in a troubled community, is the score’s sole standout. In a few short scenes, Risch gives Alan a welcome sense of nuance, as he comes to understand Pierre’s quest to make a genuine change. The large ensemble has talent to spare but little to expend it on.

Paper Mill’s production, enhanced by outside producers, spares no expense, but the set (by Paul Tate dePoo III) tends toward flat pictorial representation and the lighting (by Justin Townsend and Nick Solyom) often feels cheesy. Walter Trarbach’s sound design frequently obscures the lyrics with its relentless volume, although in many cases, that might be a blessing. Jen Caprio’s costumes telegraph cultural and socioeconomic divisions.

Most surprisingly, for a story centered on dance, Gattelli’s choreography seems to stop the show cold rather than tie the worlds together. Only in the rare moments when cultures cross— as when a group of students turn a tango into a samba—do we get the sense that Pierre’s efforts might have an actual impact on the characters’ lives. Elsewhere, like much of Take the Lead itself, it is merely flat footed.