Tap dance is the star of WBTT's 'Syncopated Avenue'

If you’re not a “Dance Mom,” your cultural references to tap dancing may be few and far between. Most people know about the iconic interracial duet between 6-year-old Shirley Temple, “America’s Sweetheart,” and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in the 1935 film “The Little Colonel.” Another young tapper, Savion Glover, captured America’s heart in “The Tap Dance Kid,” a hit Broadway show in the 1980s.

A grown-up Glover, then the star of “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk,” dazzled viewers of the 1997 Grammy Awards ceremony with his fancy footwork. His tap duel with Colin Dunne of “Riverdance” brought together representatives of the two veins of tap — African-American and Irish.

Because of its competitive nature, tap dancing has often pitted brothers against each other in dazzling displays of artistry. Gregory and Maurice Hines were originally modeled on the tap-dancing Nicholas Brothers. Art imitated life (or was it the other way around?) when the Hines brothers played feuding siblings in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 film, "The Cotton Club,” about the heyday of Harlem nightlife. 

If there’s anyone in Sarasota who can teach audiences about the history of tap in an entertaining fashion, it would have to be Nate Jacobs, the founder and artistic director of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. Before Jacobs founded WBTT 25 years ago, he was an elementary school teacher. He got his start writing and directing musicals to teach his young pupils how to focus.

Jacobs’ older brother, Michael, is a semi-retired lawyer. Both Jacobs brothers enjoy historical research. They put that skill to good use last year when they collaborated on the musical “Ruby,” based on the true-life story of a Black woman accused of murdering her white physician in 1950s Florida. 

Now the Jacobs brothers have created a singing, dancing history of African-American tap called “Syncopated Avenue,” which runs through May 25 at WBTT. 

Why tap? Jacobs feels that the art form is often neglected and that it could even be in danger of dying out over the long term.

“Tap is derived from African slave dance,” Jacobs says. “Bill Robinson, Sammy Davis and others grabbed that dance form. So did Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. But with the exception of the Broadway show ‘42nd Street,’ you seldom see African-Americans tapping anymore.”

Part of the reason is that young Black dancers have spearheaded the development of break dancing, hiphop and its dance cousins. For better or worse, many young people, regardless of race, see tap-dancing as old-fashioned.

Jacobs wants to change that stereotype at the same time he pays tribute to tap’s history. With its duets and duels, tap gives dancers a lot of room for improvisation.

With “Ruby,” WBTT demonstrated for the first time that it was capable of producing a full-fledged musical in addition to presenting musical revues and productions of African-American repertory.

Making big leaps

What’s the difference between a revue and a musical? The former is light on libretto (spoken word) and lacks character development and a story line. Many of the hit shows on Broadway are scathingly dismissed as “jukebox” musicals because they have stars performing hit songs but no real story.

WBTT’s “Ruby” recently had a run in Detroit from Feb. 7-9 at Motown’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. The production was attended by 5,000 people, said Jacobs, who got help producing the Michigan show from Real Times Media, the Knight Foundation and the Michigan Chronicle.

Can lightning strike twice for the Jacobs brothers with their second collaboration? Nate thinks so, but it’s up to audiences to decide.

Image courtesy of Sorcha Augustine

Although he is known for his creative vision, Jacobs’ superpower is spotting talent. He did that when he first cast an unknown Sheldon Rhoden in “Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul,” which WBTT revived for the fourth time in its 2023-24 season.

Jacobs’ latest discovery is Lamont Brown, a tap dancer he first saw in a Norwegian Cruise Line show a few years back. Like many other performers in Florida, Jacobs has taken his talents to the seas.

“I was doing some work for Norwegian and they were producing their first all-Black show, ‘After Midnight.’ Lamont was one of the tappers in the show,” he says.

Jacobs got a chance to meet Brown and put his contact information in his files for future reference because he was so impressed with his talent.

But Brown wasn’t a complete unknown. He later was a member of the Broadway touring production of the “Funny Girl” revival. When the show came to Tampa, Jacobs drove up and held a meeting with him.

“While I sat with him, I got inspired,” Jacobs recalled during a telephone interview. “I decided to create a new show. I played with a tune and decided to name the show, ‘Syncopated Avenue’ about the history of tap. I knew Lamont had the chops to do it.”

While WBTT’s mission includes training and casting local artists to tell African-American stories, sometimes Jacobs has to go out of town to find the performers and creative collaborators he needs to fulfill his vision.

That was true with “Ruby,” where Los Angeles-based actress Ashley Elizabeth Crowe played journalist Nora Zeale Hurston, who was sent to report on the trial and is a main character in the show.

Composer Nehemiah Luckett was credited with creating “additional music” for “Ruby,” but his experience with orchestral arrangements elevated the production, according to Jacobs.

A show within a show

"Syncopated Avenue” tells the story of a retired African-American tap dancer named Duke whose dance studio is threatened by waning interest in tap and neighborhood gentrification. Duke is played by James T. Lane, who shared the role of Louis Armstrong with James Monroe Iglehart in the recent Broadway show, “A Wonderful World.”

Brown plays Percy, a dancer who helps Duke stage a 25th anniversary celebration for his struggling dance studio. Giving Percy a hand with the show within a show, which takes up the last half-hour of “Syncopated Avenue,” is Duke’s granddaughter, Felicity. She is played by Kaylee Olson, a native of the Pacific Northwest who now lives in New York City. Olson auditioned for the role by videotape, Jacobs says.

“The show begins in the present time, but then it goes back to a nostalgic age,” Jacobs says. “It’s a real cool fantasy world with colorful costumes.”

WBTT audiences got a little bit of this dream-like treatment with the recent production of “Five Guys Named Moe,” a musical tribute to blues pioneer Louis Jordan.

Image courtesy of Sorcha Augustine

Helping to create the fantasy world in “Syncopated Avenue” are costume designer Christopher Vergara, set designer Shartoya Baptiste and lighting designer Michael Paquini.

After the Jacobs brothers began creating their tap-dance musical around Brown, they enlisted the help of choreographer Jason Bernard, who is an instructor at the Broadway Dance Center, where Savion Glover studied as a child. Through Bernard’s connections and by holding an audition in New York City, WBTT found 10 of the 13 tappers who are performing in “Syncopated Avenue.”

Brown is the choreographer for the show, while Bernard gets associate choreographer credit.

All of the music in the show is original, says Jacobs, with the exception of three classic songs — Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” George and Ira Gershwin’s “For You, For Me, For Evermore” and “The Sweetest Sounds,” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”

Nate Jacobs wrote the book for show. Lyrics are by Nate and Michael Jacobs and music is arranged and orchestrated by Louis Danowsky. “Ruby” veteran Luckett is back, this time as music supervisor. Dan Sander-Wells is music director.

Will “Syncopated Avenue” travel to another city the way that “Ruby” made its way to Detroit? Perhaps. Nate and Michael Jacobs own the rights to the production, so it’s up to them to sell other theaters on their latest creation.

Unfortunately, they don’t have that level of control over “Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul,” which Nate Jacobs has been itching to take to New York and also has in mind for WBTT’s next sojourn to the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The next edition of the biennial festival will be held in August 2026 so he’s got some time to negotiate rights issues with the Marvin Gaye estate.

In the meantime, Jacobs will try to spark local interest in the traditions and timelessness of tap. Who knows? The next “Tap Dance Kid” could be sitting somewhere in the audience at WBTT’s Donelly Theatre.