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Michelle, a Las Vegas showgirl marries a man on a whim and moves to his sleepy coastal town where she winds up working alongside her new mother-in-law at her dance school.

Sounds awful. Luckily, Sutton Foster brings years of Broadway experience to the role of Michelle and makes some huge character leaps work. When she announces she has never loved you really believe her. For awhile it really seems Kelly Bishop is just playing a riff on her ‘Gilmore Girls’ matriarch Emily. But she establishes the difference of the characters with a dance scene that reeks with the joy of kindred spirits connecting. The nasty comments dumped on Michelle from all and sundry would become tiresome quickly if the late reveal of a plot twist takes the story in a totally unexpected direction.

This world is believable and whereas the characters in ‘Smash’ seem to have never entered a theater, you know these woman have spent years perfecting their ‘craft’ as performers. I believe them and cannot wait to spend many hours in their company.