''Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks'' is a 2001 play by American playwright Richard Alfieri. It is a play with only two characters: Lily Harrison, the formidable widow of a Baptist minister, and Michael Minetti, a gay and acerbic dance instructor hired to give her dancing lessons. It premiered at the

Geffen Playhouse The Geffen Playhouse is a not-for-profit theater company founded in Los Angeles, California by Gilbert Cates in 1995. It produces plays in two theaters in Geffen Playhouse, which is owned by University of California Los Angeles. The Playhous ...

in Los Angeles (with

Uta Hagen Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of '' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...

and

David Hyde Pierce David Hyde Pierce (born David Pierce; April 3, 1959) is an American actor. Known for his portrayal of psychiatrist Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, he received four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting A ...

in its two roles) before moving to Broadway. It has gone on to performances in 24 countries and been translated into 14 languages.

Synopsis

Lily Harrison is a self-described "tight-arsed old biddy" living alone in St Petersburg Beach on the

gulf coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. As the play opens, she is waiting for her first of six weekly in-home dance lessons. Her tutor is Michael Minetti, an acerbic gay man who has been forced by circumstances to leave his life as a chorus boy on Broadway and to take work as a dance instructor. Lily is Michael's first client, and their first lesson does not go well owing to his foul language and the fact that both are bitter. Each lies to the other, Lily claiming her husband is soon coming home (in fact, she is a widow whose life was cramped by her

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestantism in the United States, Pr ...

Minister husband), and Michael claiming to be married to hide both his homosexuality and the pain of his lover's death. As the lessons continue, an improbable friendship develops out of their shared testiness and solitude. It becomes clear that Lily did not need lessons but rather a dance partner, and the pair enjoy time together outside of their lessons. The friendship grows to the point where Lily is playing match-maker for Michael, and Michael is caring for Lily as her health deteriorates.

Notable productions

Arthur Allan Seidelman Arthur Allan Seidelman (born 1937 in New York City) is an American television director, television, film director, film, and theatre director and an occasional writer, producer, and actor. His works are distinguished by a humane, probing, and sympa ...

directed the play for its 2001 premiere in Los Angeles at the

(with

and

) and for the 2003 season at the

Coconut Grove Playhouse The Coconut Grove Playhouse was a theatre in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. The building was originally constructed as a movie theater called the Player's State Theater. It opened on January 1, 1927, as a part of ...

in Miami (with

Rue McClanahan Eddi-Rue McClanahan (February 21, 1934 – June 3, 2010) was an American actress. She was best known for her roles on television sitcoms, including Maude (TV series)#Characters, Vivian Cavender Harmon on ''Maude (TV series), Maude'' (1972–78), ...

and

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, and the Joker (character), Joker in various animated DC Comics projects, starting with ''Batm ...

Polly Bergen Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin; July 14, 1930 – September 20, 2014) was an American actress, singer, television host, writer, and entrepreneur. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan (singer), Helen ...

took over the role of Lily when the production moved to Broadway. Seidelman also directed productions in the West End of London (with

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles on stage and screen and has received two BAFTA Awards and a Drama Desk Award as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Grammy Award an ...

and

Billy Zane William George Zane Jr. (born February 24, 1966) is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the Australian film ''Dead Calm (film), Dead Calm'' (1989), a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association, ...

) in 2006 and the Los Angeles revival (with Constance Towers and

Jason Graae Jason Graae (pronounced "grah" or "graw", but not "gray") (born 15 May 1958) is an American musical theater actor, best known for his musical theater performances but with a varied career spanning Broadway, opera, television and film. He has ...

) in 2008. A 2014 Laguna Playhouse production starred

Leslie Caron Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (; born 1 July 1931) is a French and American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. Caron b ...

and David Engel. The play has also been translated into 14 languages and been performed in cities including

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, Strasland,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

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, and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. According to ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', the play has been produced widely, and the publisher Concord Theatricals (formerly known as

Samuel French Inc. Samuel French, Inc. is an American company founded by Samuel French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, who formed a partnership to combine their interests in London and New York City. It publishes Play (theatre), plays, represents authors, and sells scri ...

) describes it as an "extremely popular" play which has "enjoyed tremendous success both nationally and internationally." The play's website describes it as "an international hit and one of the most produced plays in the world." The play was produced in Australia in 2006 by the

Ensemble Theatre The Ensemble Theatre is an Australian theatre company and theatre, situated in the Sydney suburb of Kirribilli, New South Wales. History It is Australia's longest continuously running professional theatre group, having given its first perfor ...

under then-

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

Sandra Bates, pairing Todd McKenney in his first non-musical play with Nancye Hayes. The pair reprised these roles ten years later, reuniting with Bates in her final directorial role. , it is the most successful play in the theatre's 58-year history. The Ensemble Theatre, in collaboration with Christine Dunstan Productions, took the play on tour and won the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Production.

Adaptations

Alfieri developed ''Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks'' into a

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

for the 2014 film adaptation, which was directed by Seidelman and starred

Gena Rowlands Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (; June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. She was a four-time Emmy, Emmy Award and two-time Golden Globe winner, and ...

and Cheyenne Jackson. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports that the film has an overall approval rating of 50%, based on 12 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 5.3/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 50 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Manuscript

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks 2001 plays Broadway plays American plays adapted into films Plays set in the 21st century Two-handers LGBTQ-related plays