Comedy Spotlight : "Freak Dance" at UCB Theatre

Freak Dance: The Forbidden Dirty Boogaloo
Upright Citizens Brigade - Hollywood, CA
by Josh Henaman

On a cold, rainy Friday night, tucked away in the relatively cozy atmosphere of the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles, I discovered something about each and every one of us. In the simplest of terms, I found out that each one of us is a brain… and an athlete… and a basket case… and…. Ah screw this Breakfast Club bullshit. The only thing I learned on that cold and rainy night is that dancing isn't about sex. It's all about the looove...and we can blame weed for everything… including terrorism.

In case you didn't know, I'm talking about Freak Dance: The Forbidden Dirty Boogaloo. Billed as a straight-up, activated and in your face musical extravaganza, Freak Dance is the absolute must-see show of the decade because you never know when you'll keel over dead as your head implodes because you danced on the ceiling one too many times. WTF? That's right, I'll bet you didn't even know the threat of head implosion existed. Well, thank Christ for Freak Dance.

Written by UCB alum, Matt Besser, directed by Lindsay Hendrickson and with songs by Brian Fountain and Jake Anthony, Freak Dance follows the tried and true story of a group of inner city youths as they strive to save their dance hang-out from closure and in the process discover something about themselves and everyone around them. But what separates their story from those in Save the Last Dance or Step Up or Step Up 2: The Streets or even that non-dancing movie where Sean Connery shouts, "You're the man now, dog!", Freak Dance isn't just about preaching to us the joys of dancing, it oozes it from its break-dance lovin' pores. This show isn't above reminding us every thirty seconds or so that dancing isn't something to do, but something to be.

From the opening dance number that introduces us to a world of oversized man junk and the art of the dance fight, we are fully engrossed in the plight of Funky Bunch, Sassy, Egghead and Barrio as they welcome the rich, wannabe-poor girl, Special Flavor, into the fold. With guidance from their mentor, Asteroid, an old school dance machine who once danced the forbidden boogaloo so fast and so hard the friction burnt his penis off, the gang set out to save their hang-out, Fantaseez, after it's shut down due to a bathroom deemed too dark to pee (among other things.) For about two hours, we're enveloped in a setting where dance numbers involving illiteracy, weed and slaughtering a pig might be considered the tamest of the bunch. And while it's hard to review a show that is as non-stop riotous as Freak Dance and single out all great standouts, random highlights and snippets include The Bad Newz Bears Crew BBoyz, smoking weed to forget I'm ugly, my dead brother, ten and the evil genius that is Dazzle.

With only two shows left in their run, May 30th and June 6th, you would not only be wise to check it out, but you might even be branded a friggin' genius by all of your friends. And to paraphrase Funky Bunch's signature line… "Activate! And go see Freak Dance: The Forbidden Dirty Boogaloo. It's fucking awesome."

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