The singers rest during weekend matinees and on Feb. 17 and 18, while the dancers mount a collection of “greatest hits” from Parsons’ repertory going back to the 1982 “Caught,” in which a strobe light makes a soloist appear to fly.
You’ve heard of the jukebox musical? David Parsons and singers AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross of the East Village Opera Co. offer a jukebox opera, playing nightly at the Joyce. Eleven Parsons dancers share the stage with Milazzo and Ross, who clutch microphones cranked to 11 and stroll through the action. On the recorded soundtrack, three drummers create a wall of sound so loud you — well, I — want to hide under the seat. Digital video of abstract patterns, natural landscapes and stunning architecture change for each song.
Both rock concert and dance show, “Remember Me” has movers shaking their booties while the singers, dressed in black, croon timeless ditties from “La Boheme,” “Carmen,” “Dido and Aeneas,” and other opera classics. Howell Binkley lights the stage as if it were Madison Square Garden; the dancers gyrate like performers at a halftime show or the senior prom, acting out a shadowy plot in which two guys want the same woman.
It’s choreography for audiences with attention deficit disorder: Nothing goes on for very long, and the piece makes up in energy and drive what it lacks in sense and sophistication. My favorite section is sort of faux-Egyptian, the linked dancers making rectangular shapes with their arms while video of the same actions plays on the wall.
Parsons Dance
Through Feb. 21
Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave.
$10-$59, 212-242-0800
www.joyce.org