To Broadway

Mazars’s sparkling English-language debut depicts the thrill of dance in graceful color and linework. In late-1950s Germany, young dancer Uli diligently studies classical ballet but adores American movie musicals. A tryst with Anthony, a Black American dancer, convinces him to move to New York City and pursue his dream of making it on Broadway. There, he befriends live-wire Patty, an aspiring playwright, and hooks up with Patty’s cousin, Jacob—while still trying to reconnect with Anthony. Mazars captures the era in blazing watercolor and details the nuances of midcentury bohemian New York, including the discrimination Anthony and Patty face as a Black dancer and a woman writer, respectively, and the open secret of gay culture in the theater world. Her loose, elegant figures recall Jules Feiffer’s cartoon dancers, and she mixes up art styles to suggest different forms of dance: classical and experimental ballet, Broadway hoofing (a style of tap dancing), or partiers dancing to rock music in clubs. The visual fluidity provides the right look for the story of a man who seeks freedom through his art and declares, “I never want to be rigid.” It’s a showstopper. (May)