Waiting for Guffman - "A Penny For Your Thoughts"

I reckon we're in love

The dance scenes in Waiting for Guffman can barely be called “dance,” but perhaps that’s just as well for this post-Thanksgiving Monday where our stomachs are still all distended from stuffing and pie. Allow me to ease you back into the week with some light community theater choreography.

If you have never seen Waiting for Guffman, I implore you to drop everything and go watch it right now. It is one of Christopher Guest & Co’s finest mockumentaries, for me tied with Best in Show.¹ If you can’t drop everything, I’ll tell you it’s about a group of amateur performers putting on an original musical in celebration of their town’s anniversary, led by eccentric writer-director Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest). That’s all I want to say, because if you’re about to watch it for the first time, WOW what a treat.

Because they’re performing a musical, there are quite a few dance moments in this move. I do love “Stool Boom,” “Nothing Ever Happens on Mars,” and this classic scene of Corky trying out some choreo. But “A Penny For Your Thoughts” is forever number one in my heart:

As someone who did a lot of community theater as a kid, there are so many details that make this scene (and this whole movie) perfection: the ill fitting costumes, the unnecessary blocking, the over-dramatized speech, and of course, this simple-but-weird choreography. This is a bittersweet moment in an otherwise lighthearted show, so there is a lot of high-kicking (aka grand battements) and walking on tiptoes and other ballet-esque elements.

I had my stage debut at age 11 in our community theater production of Oliver!, where I played a boy in Fagin’s gang. I stuffed my long hair into a newsboy cap, wore a button-up vest over a button-up shirt, roughed up my face with dirt makeup, and BOOM, I was a 19th century ragamuffin! I would like to say the company was ahead of its time in terms of gender-neutral casting, but really there were way more girls than boys who auditioned. (Full disclosure: my dad played Fagin. I was a 90s nepo baby.)

Our stage was pretty small—definitely smaller than what the Blaine Community Players are working with. Still, I recall doing some grapevines and box steps for the rollicking “Consider Yourself” and “I’d Do Anything,” probably along with some waving arms and light spins. I felt like a superstar up on that stage, dancing and singing at the same time, yelling lines in an exaggerated cockney accent. The applause at the end of every song was like a drug, setting me up for a lifetime of constantly wanting this level of attention:

“GOD I wish I was in the show!”

Our little theater didn’t have the well-designed sets that Blaine has (lit up stars!) or the full orchestra (a clarinet AND a violin!), but we did have a fully committed cast and crew who loved grapevining across a stage. It was a big part of my childhood that I’m so grateful for.

Let’s get into Corky and Libby Mae!

We know something exciting is afoot when Corky tentatively stretches out his arms at the beginning as if he is about to fly away:

Ready for takeoff

Then Libby Mae (the stupendous Parker Posey) gives us a taste of what’s to come with this elegant stretch:

Corky deep in thought

Followed by some very impressive high kicks—I mean, grand battements (right? is it that? ballet dancers please school me in the comments):

Perfection

Meanwhile, Michael Hitchcock, killing it as Councilman Steve Stark, is quietly weeping with the beauty of it all, as he should be:

I get it dude

Then Corky and Libby Mae show off how well they’ve been stretching for this moment with their synchronized stroll (Libby Mae obviously more flexible, but Corky gets a A for effort):

True love?

I think I say this every post, but for real: THIS is how I want to enter every room! Boldly clearing the way with my pointed foot while everyone fears a broken nose!

And then we have the BEST ending to a dance of all time!!

Never give up

DYING. DEAD. Every time I watch this movie I have to rewind and rewatch this part at least twice to fully appreciate Christopher Guest’s patient commitment to this position. Some of the hilarity of this scene is that Corky has taken over the part after the younger, more appropriate Johnny Savage (haaaa that name) quits the show. As director and choreographer, Corky could have changed this part, but NO. He is fully committed to his vision and must inhabit this character in the way he was meant to be portrayed.

And that’s really community theater in a nutshell. You might be the wrong age for the part, your costume might not fit, and you don’t know if you can bend that way, but damn it, you promised these people a SHOW and you’re going to give them one. Theater requires this kind of passion, no matter how small the stage. Because how else can you make the councilman cry?

BONUS: speaking of passion, I sometimes write more serious things, and I was thrilled to have my essay, Body Memory, featured in the excellent Substack Memoir Land earlier this month. It’s an adapted excerpt from a full-length memoir that I’m querying, and it’s been awesome to finally have this piece of it out in the world. Please read and share if you haven’t already!

Body Memory

See you next month with more moves, and possibly more grand battements!

Love and jazz hands,
Molly

1. And yes, I know about This is Spinal Tap, which is also a work of genius, but it doesn’t have quite the level of heart that keeps bringing me back to these two.