Theater: Gorgeous Fun, but Not Funky

BLACK AND BLUE Conceived by Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli

Infuse a 1940s Harlem nightclub act with a Busby Berkeley film's lavish budget, elbow room and staging style, restrain the raunch and remove the racial bitterness. The result: Black and Blue, the sumptuously spectacular $5 million revue that opened last week on Broadway. If Fred and Ginger had been black and still able to live in that elegant fantasy world, their shows might have looked a lot like this: rows of tap dancers in tailcoats or scarlet evening gowns; vast sets like lacquered jewel boxes gliding across the floor and opening...