Jitterbug! the dancical is a choreographer's dream show

Jitterbug! has many dance numbers a choreographer can interpret but it's the dancical's finale that really encourages them to stretch their creative imaginations. The script in fact urges them to "reach into the future" beyond the dances of the 1930's for moves  the play's main characters Billy and Tharbis will use to win the dance contest at the Savoy Ballroom. These dance steps must convincingly blow  the collective minds of those actors and dancers on stage and the theater audience. The final number begins with the Gershwin's Liza but near the climatic ending segues into Duke Ellington's Harlem. When Billy and Tharbis breakaway and start dropping tap, balletic, jazz, robotic, and dub steps-- in tandem-- the dancical rides Ellington's symphonic masterpiece with its clashing cymbals and pounding, echoing drum beats into magical realism, transforming what had been a bloody, life threatening event into a joyful embrace of the gifts of love and life and the triumph of the human spirit.

Here's an example of what the playwright sees in that final dance. He's admired the work of Marquese "Nonstop" Scott for some time and this dance is typical of the "mind blowing" qualities he's looking for. Please note, only a few seconds of dub step (or anything else that is cutting edge contemporary) would be used-- just enough to get the Savoy crowd surrounding Billy and Tharbis to rush their new heroes, sweep them off their feet, and hoist them onto their crowd shoulders, parading them around the dance floor before depositing them on the bandstand to accept their cash prize and the admiration of "all of Harlem."