Produced on Broadway by Lincoln Center Theater, "The Nance" is a two-layered play in which authentic-sounding burlesque routines concocted by Mr. Beane and Glen Kelly, who wrote the original music, alternate with backstage scenes that show us in agonizing detail what Chauncey's emotionally starved private life is like.
Keep in mind that this is a complex, messy tale of two transformations that share certain features, with the second one being layered on top of the first.