This Double-Billed Performer/Choreographer Is Bringing a Surprising Amount of Dance to Broadway’s Newest Play

You couldn’t be blamed if you showed up to Skeleton Crew, a play by Dominique Morisseau starring Phylicia Rashad that just opened on Broadway, not expecting any dance. Set in Detroit in 2008, the show, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, follows a group of auto workers navigating the impending closure of their factory.

But not only does Skeleton Crew have dance, it opens with dance, and dance is the thread that weaves the fabric of the show together. The man doing the weaving: Bessie winner and Broadway veteran Adesola Osakalumi, who joins the elite ranks of artists (like Savion Glover and Tommy Tune) double-billed on Broadway as both performers and choreographers.

There is a touch of David Mamet in Skeleton Crew’s who’s-fooling-who intrigue about the company’s plans for the plant’s future (and a rash of robberies that seem like inside jobs), and a hint of August Wilson in the differing modes of Black masculinity embodied by Joshua Boone as Dez, a streetwise hustler with a suspicious backpack, and Brandon J. Dirden as his straight-laced foreman, Reggie. There is also a budding flirtation between Dez and Shanita, and even some break dancing in the breaks between scenes:

The self-choreographed Adesola Osakalumi, a holdover from director Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s powerful 2016 production of Skeleton Crew at the Atlantic, performs riveting robotic moves that evoke, among other things, the automation that is rendering human workers more dispensable.

As a storytelling engine, Skeleton Crew glides along, with complications slotting neatly into revelations and a worker’s poetry lubricating the action. “I know everything about this place,” says Faye. “The walls talk to me. The dust on the floors write me messages.” Morisseau is the modern-day bard of Detroit — her other work includes Detroit ’67 and Paradise Blue — and those two plays treat some aspect of the city’s past specifically through its music. It takes a moment to realize she has written in the same key here, but instead of imagining Motown record parties or jazz-age trumpeters, she envisions a score of metal-stamping, piston-pumping, and whistle-blowing. During transitions, Santiago-Hudson has dancer Adesola Osakalumi pop and lock, playing a lyrical impression of the factory itself, his choreographic precision echoing the way a hydraulic press slams into position. There’s perhaps too little of that kind of music in the scenes, but it’s a welcome element between them.

The majority of the first act is devoted to deliberate character development with scene changes led by fluid hip-hop dances by Adesola Osakalumi and stunning projections by Nicholas Hussong. At times you might wonder where it’s all going, but like the production line, every moment is judiciously planned and carefully assembled. Her characters move sequentially along a line that, in the end, gives life and nuance to working-class people often portrayed as one-dimensional. “Skeleton Crew” is more than a play about blue-collar blood and sweat; it is a story filled with depth and relatable characters. Morisseau gives you meat along with dem bones.

Adesola Osakalumi was born to be a star. The Bronx native developed an appreciation for theater by dancing at his family owned African dance company (Africa I Dance Theater) and when he hung out with friends, he immersed himself in b-boy culture. Eventually, he joined a group called the Rhythm Technicians, with whom he toured the country.

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