In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
The show begins with Jordan screaming at everyone to be brilliant like him. It’s not working. Michelle comes in and tries to reason with him, but hit doesn’t work. He does some crazy move and Ginny does the Jordan Lite version. Later, we see Melanie at roller derby. She has been watching for two days apparently and a girl asks her if she wants to try.
That night, Melanie is at dinner with her father. He’s trying to ply her with college application information when Ginny and Claire show up. Claire is obviously still upset about her ex-husband getting remarried. Melanie lies to Ginny about why she has been missing ballet, which is surprising.
Michelle goes to the Oyster House and apologizes to Godot for calling him a high school drop-out. Also, she tells him that she went online to read his Masters thesis. They hang out all night and Michelle talks. She gets home and her brother Scotty (played by Sutton’s brother Hunter!) is waiting for her. He seems to have just skipped out on his marriage (his fourth such marriage).
The day, Boo interrupts class because she’s babysitting a bunch of kids with Carl. That night, Scotty and Michelle get really drunk with Godot waiting on them. Later, they drunkenly talk about how Michelle was supposed to be a ballerina. The day, Melanie is at roller derby. She goes on the rink for the first time, gets knocked on her ass and loves it. She looks up and sees Cozette dj’ing and looking down approvingly. Love it. The day, she goes to ballet class and Ginny is in hysterics about her father’s wedding. Melanie talks to Cozette and it looks like they are forging a friendship. Frankie is there and tells Ginny that she looks like a Vermeer painting, which works with her. Scotty shows up and makes fun of how Michelle isn’t really an authority figure and it appears to upset her.
The day, Melanie goes to roller derby and finds out her name is Cleo-smacktra. Meanwhile, Ginny as at the photo shoot for her dad’s wedding and was expecting Melanie to be there. Boo, exhausted from babysitting, freaks out at Jordan and tells him to be nice to everyone. It’s sort of hot to watch him get screamed at. Ginny finds Melanie at roller derby and is upset that Melanie wasn’t there for her like she should have been. Melanie tells her that Cozette is the person who got her into it and Ginny freaks out and tells Cozette to back off.
Michelle and Scotty have a blow-out about Scotty ridiculing her in front of her students. She tells him that Fanny is her family now and she can be a success like she has never been before. Then, she and Scotty sing a song while she plays the ukelele.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We begin with Jordan directing a combination at the studio. He hates what he's seeing and tells them that they killed Baryshnikov. It's really difficult watching Kent Boyd be mean. I think of him as Cinderella's golden retriever puppy that got turned into a boy dancer and she's still at the ball. Michelle comes in as he expertly shows them the combination again. He tells Boo to be smaller and Matisse that if she doesn't focus, her life will be a series of alcoholic boyfriends. Hey, at least someone told her. Some people don't even have dance class. Michelle steps in at this point. She and Jordan proceed to argue about his methods as Ginny and Boo and Matisse and another little girl kvetch about the dictator. Melanie is missing and Sasha is apartment hunting, though it appears she already found one. Maybe she's just handling the red tape? Packing? Or maybe Ginny is just getting text alerts. Then Boo gets a phone call. A TV has fallen over but we don't know if it fell on someone. Also, she's risking life and limb by talking on the phone in Jordan's class. Even I know what a faux pas that is. Suddenly, he notices Boo. She throws her phone to the side. Also, we hear the screams of young dancers locked in the closet. Jordan is kind of amazing? He shows the dancers one more combination which ends with a forward flip ending in a sitting position. Ginny half-asses her and does a somersault thing to end up in the ending position. It's pretty funny.
And, we're at the roller derby. Lots of girls roughing each other up on the rink. Melanie is watching wide-eyed from the side. The leader goes over to her. She has been watching for two days. Does she want to try it? Sure, she says. Later, she meets her dad for dinner. He has a lot of college materials for her to peruse, but she's not interested. Ginny and her mother show up and Mel's dad says that her mom has a cold and couldn't make it, which appears to be a lie. Maybe she just doesn't like to hang out with Ginny's mom. Understandable. She apparently wouldn't let the valet dudes park her car and she asks the waiter for a drink called a "Gay Marine." Ginny reminds her that it's a Chinese restaurant, so she's just gonna have some white wine. Claire gets on the subject of Ginny's dad getting remarried. Apparently, Melanie and family are going. Claire finally gives her keys to the valet guys. Ginny shows Melanie her bridesmaid dress, which is lame because Faye Mendelsohn doesn't like Ginny's boobs. Mel apologizes for being unavailable (though she doesn't mention roller derby) and Ginny waters down her mother's wine.
Scotty shows up to watch Michelle teach a class. He makes fun of her being in authority and she's a little annoyed. "Four turns are not better than three if you fall, dude," she offers to one student. Advice we should all adhere to. She gives a correction to Cozette and... I don't know what happens? Maybe she's so not used to not being perfect that she completely turns into an alien? She's gets right up in Michelle's face like she can't understand what she's saying, then she repeats the move, perfectly this time.
After class, she asks who Cozette is. They tell her that Frankie is her brother, which she finds weird. Then, she introduces Scotty to everyone. He asks what kind of teacher she is. He tells them all that Michelle hated her ballet teacher when she was a little girl and tried to mimic some movie where a ballerina sabotages her teacher. Michelle is not amused.
At roller derby, Frankie and Cozette give Melanie her roller derby name, Cleo-Smacktra. Heh. At ballet, Boo and Carl argue about who is going to take care of the brats. Apparently there was a fight earlier where Beaver convinced Boo that Carl called her doo-doo head. We weren't there, so I guess we'll never know the truth. You can see Jordan being really horrible to the dancers in the background. They start working, even though Boo wanted to stretch first. He yells at this little girl named Margaret, who has the saddest sweetest face in the whole world. He tells her not to look weak because Baryshnikov never looked week, not even in Sex and the City. Awesome. Boo cuts in and tells Jordan to back off. It's such a great rant. She treats him like a little boy and tells him that he's getting a time out. She effectively flattens him. Her phone rings and it's Ginny. Melanie isn't at the photo shoot and we see Faye Mendelsohn jumping on a trampoline in the background and Ginny is hysterical. When class resumes, Jordan is completely nice.
Melanie is getting knocked around when she sees Ginny show up. Her dress is ruined. Apparently, Claire showed up and threw fruit punch on everyone. Melanie apologizes but says that she's freaking out because she's flunking out of school and roller derby makes her feel better. Ginny tells her that she should have been at the photo shoot. She finds out that Cozette gave her the flier for roller derby and charges her. She tells her to stay away from them. She also drops that she doesn't know why Cozette knows Mitch Alvarado, which is awesome. Man, I love Ginny. This girl has got the goods. Before she stomps out, she turns to the ever-present Frankie and screams that she's Norwegian.
1 2 3 4
That night, Scotty gets a key from Michelle at the dance studio. She's pissed. She says that he told her ukulele was lost. But, it wasn't. He plays it off, but she's not having it. She says that he is undermining her. She says that Paradise is her home now and she has worked hard for it, but he says she just got drunk and married a guy. Low. He also reminds her that she's living in a guest house. Oh? We're measuring stability in square footage now, she asks? "What's your square footage, Scotty? Enjoying the six square feet of my couch?" Nice one. I'm really feeling this right now. He reminds her that she dated his best friend in high school and he stopped talking to Scotty when they broke up. Scotty can't even get his name right though. Michelle says that he never takes responsibility for anything. She blames him for not making sure that she graduated high school. We find out that their mother is sort of another child. Michelle hasn't talked to her in twelve years. It gets really heated and she says that she is focused on making her life what she wants it to be. "I can do this," she says before walking out.
we see Michelle sitting and strumming her ukulele when Scotty joins her. Without looking at him, she starts playing "Tonight You Belong To Me" a standard made super famous by Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in The Jerk- another Carl Reiner reference there. It's really beautiful and mournful. Man, I love these performers. I think I have every cast recording that Hunter Foster has been a part of. I'm trying not to bleed my obsession with Sutton Foster all over. I mean, I seriously think I might be her biggest fan. Anyway, this is a really lovely moment. They finish the song and look forward, seemingly aware and afraid that their relationship is going to have to change a lot.
We finish with Jordan, alone, talking to himself like he talks to his students. And, it's either making him worse or his confidence has been shaken by Boo. Either way, he's not landing his moves, poor guy. Finally he hits it, but he tells himself that he will be better after a banana. I'll just have a juice box.
Jeff Long is a writer/performer in Brooklyn. He can be reached at jeff.long75@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @jblong.
1 2 3 4