Reviews

It is reasonable to be skeptical of Chicago Dance Crash’s “Lil Pine Nut: The Learning Curve of Pinocchio,” running through Aug. 31 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. This hip-hop company’s latest theatrical dance show is based on “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” the 1883 novel by Carlo Collodi which inspired Walt Disney’s 1940 animated film. I, too, wondered if Crash could exceed or even meet the bar they set with the excellent “Bricklayers of Oz” (2017) an imaginative hip-hop prequel to the “Wizard of Oz.”

You can rest assured, reader, that lightning does indeed strike twice in the same place. Certain patterns have emerged over the decade or so Crash has produced these full-length narrative shows. But their approach to storytelling isn’t stale or formulaic. It could be hokey; it’s not. No, “Lil Pine Nut,” like the novel which inspired it was in its time, is a fresh and innovative take on universal questions about morality and what it means to be human.