Me too, I was so surprised and delighted at how different the show was from the movie!
I loved this line:
Chairs play so many roles in this production, from dancing partners to symbols of defiance to the baggage of life.
Is the last a reference to the suitcase on the chair at the end, or a more generalized reference? If the former, I'd never thought of it that way until now, that the element we see Billy trying to conquer and dance with would also become the platform he packs away his old life on and begins anew.
another random thought came to me as I was reading the article:
While it's probably been mentioned before, I wonder if the production team ever considered staging Michael's closet (his sister's closet, I guess) as the place where all the dancing dresses would eventually emerge from? Wouldn't that be a cool update next time around?