Dance a Little Closer
Original Cast Recording
Music	Charles Strouse
Lyrics	Alan Jay Lerner
Book	Alan Jay Lerner
Basis	Robert E. Sherwood's play Idiot's Delight'
Productions	1983 Broadway

Dance a Little Closer is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Charles Strouse.

An updated version of Robert E. Sherwood's 1936 antiwar comedy Idiot's Delight, it's set on New Year's Eve "in the avoidable future" in the grand Alpine Barclay Palace Hotel, where the guests find themselves in the midst of a potential nuclear Armageddon. At its core are American crooner Harry Aikens and Cynthia Brookfield-Bailey, who may have had a romantic fling years earlier. Among the others present are Cynthia's current paramour, Henry Kissinger-like diplomat Dr. Josef Winkler, a gay couple, a minister, and a freedom fighter.

After twenty-five previews, the Broadway production, directed by Lerner and choreographed by Billy Wilson, opened on May 11, 1983 at the Minskoff Theatre, where it closed after one performance. The cast included Len Cariou, Liz Robertson, George Rose, Don Chastain, Brent Barrett, and Alyson Reed.

In his New York Times review [1], Frank Rich described it as "a huge, extravagant mishmash . . . that seems to have taken on a rampaging, self-destructive life of its own," a sentiment similar to those expressed by the other critics.

An original cast recording is available on CD.

[edit] Song list

Act I It Never Would've Worked Happy, Happy New Year No Man is Worth It What are You Going to Do About It? A Woman Who Thinks I'm Wonderful Pas de Deux There's Never Been Anything Like Us Another Life Why Can't the World Go and Leave Us Alone? He Always Comes Home to Me I Got a New Girl Dance a Little Closer There's Always One You Can't Forget

Act II Homesick Mad I Don't Know Auf Wiedersehen I Never Want to See You Again On Top of the World I Got a New Girl (Reprise) Dance a Little Closer (Reprise)

[edit] External links

• Internet Broadway Database listing

v • d • e Charles Strouse musicals Bye Bye Birdie · All American · Golden Boy · It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman · Applause · I and Albert · Annie · A Broadway Musical · Charlie and Algernon · Bring Back Birdie · Nightingale · Dance a Little Closer · Mayor · Rags · Nick & Nora · Annie Warbucks