BOOP! THE MUSICAL Reviews — Page 9

TellZ: Thank you. But ugh 😑

MemorableUserName said: "Guess I'm in the minority who thought the male lead was great. He and Jasmine were the main/only things keeping the show afloat for me, and his songs are the ones I've been listening to. "Why Look Around the Corner?" is terrific."

I also felt Ainsley Melham was fantastic and incredibly charming. I’d suggest any perceived lack of charisma is possibly the fault of the weak writing for his role/the book, but respect everyone’s thoughts on his performance.

MemorableUserName said: "Guess I'm in the minority who thought the male lead was great. He and Jasmine were the main/only things keeping the show afloat for me, and his songs are the ones I've been listening to. "Why Look Around the Corner?" is terrific."

The younger male lead was terrific. And Bergen IMO

TotallyEffed said: "This was one of the biggest flaming piles of dog mess I've seen on Broadway in a long time.

It was like someone asked Siri to write a musical stealingthe plot of Roman Holiday but "in the style" of Barbie, only tackier. It's incrediblylong and subplots and supporting characters just kept spawning up out of nowhere. The Comic-Con, Times Square, and "political" scenes were particularly humiliating.

Jasmine is fully committed and that is admirable but now that I've seen the show her ever having a chance atthe Tony is absolutely laughable. She should be given a special award just for having to perform this drivel eight times a week.

Faith Prince was just there to collect her coins and hit it."

I agree with most of this. I really think ChatGPT could’ve done better. It’s a big song and dance show, and yes, Jasmine is great, so people around me seemed to be enjoying it, but the songs were SO subpar and there were literally no stakes at intermission that made me want to stick around for act two. It was not acknowledged at all that anyone had spotted Betty. No stares, no gasps, no nothing. Also, we discussed the fact that Faith Prince is basically singing a poor man’s version of “Adelaide’s Lament”? It’s actually insane.

Also, why is Faith Prince, a scientist, dressed in a Times Square character costume when we first meet her? One of many mysteries.

TotallyEffed said: "

Jasmine is fully committed and that is admirable but now that I've seen the show her ever having a chance atthe Tony is absolutely laughable. She should be given a special award just for having to perform this drivel eight times a week.."

An entire month of people being like SHE HAS CHANCE....sure!

In the last few days some even said the race was likely between her and Audra LOL

It was also clear from the book that their intentions were to paint the skin of the black and white characters. I remember there was a rumor that Young Frankenstein would do the same. Multiple references were made to Betty painting her skin and yet she looked like a totally normal skinned person. Talk about lazy writing. No one thought to remove these references from the script?

itsahopi said: "iluvtheatertrash said: "THDavis said: "MemorableUserName said: "Guess I'm in the minority who thought the male lead was great. He and Jasmine were the main/only things keeping the show afloat for me, and his songs are the ones I've been listening to. "Why Look Around the Corner?" is terrific."

I also felt Ainsley Melham was fantastic and incredibly charming. I’d suggest any perceived lack of charisma is possibly the fault of the weak writing for his role/the book, but respect everyone’s thoughts on his performance."

I loved Ainsley too and thought “She Knocks Me Out” was a highlight."

This is a core problem of the show to me. His music shouldn’t be the highlight. He has more good music than Betty and that’s because Betty doesn’t sing in act one after she gets to NYC until Where I Wanna Be outside of part of the color song. She also barely sings in act two.This vanilla man role does too much in a show called BOOP. And while I agree he’s talented, he felt disinterested in Betty no matter how well Jasmine acted to make it seem like they had chemistry. A very isolated and blandperformance in a bland role given far too much attention by the bland writers."

I thought their chemistry was on fire the night I went… but I do agree with you about his songs being a problem for that reason.

ChairinMain said: "And while Buena Vista Social Club had my vote for choreography, Jerry Mitchell is providing the best jazz and tap work currently on Broadway. The opening number is genuinely great and the act two opener is, for all of the clunkiness of it's songwriting, an instant classic because of the clever staging.”

I agree with most of what you’re saying but the tap choreography is offensively bad. So bad they piped in an horrifically mixed canned tap click track. Perhaps because it’s maybe the only tap that’s new this season, it’s somehow wow-ing people, but Boop desperately needed a tap choreographer consultant for this number because it wouldn’t get placement at a youth dance competition. Broadway has lost its eye for tap with so few tap shows. This was not good tap, sorry.

The opening number looked bafflingly amateur and sloppy from the front row of the mezz.

merle57 said: "I enjoyed the post about the show being like a smoothie -- delicious surprising flavors, but not a good meal in itself. I think that does sum up the show with many wonderful performances and dance parts, but there is no meal, no protein, only wasted calories. I think that may have been built into the subject matter.

We have had too many musicals since The Producers and 42nd Streetthat have the lead or second lead wanting to be in a musical, even Oh Mary steals that plot point. The self-reverential let's re-doold fashioned tap dancing Hollywood style 1930s musicals is a worn out trope. That's why I don't think Smash or Boop or New York, New York, or Some Like It Hot have worked -- we have seen the tricks and heard those kinds of scores too often in recent years. . Even Spamalot stole played off of that. We have juke box junk musicals, with a Wikipedia plot about the composer orplot pointsfrom weak movies put into a blender screaming outfemale empowerment. The 11 o'clock Screamgirl pop balladhas become campy and predictable. Now wehave a new revivalgenre with a black, white, grey world ofslips and undershirts, with mandatoryblood spattered by the end - a lazy artist's Brechtian imitation diva belting the longest possible high notebathed in 50 backlighted spots. What we are not seeing enough of musicals .that touchour hearts and stimulates our minds or challenges our assumptions- Maybe Happy Ending , Cabaret (not the current revival, past productions, Chicago, Kimberly Akimbo, Dear Evan Hanse,Company,Sweeney Todd, Outsiders, Great Gatsby, even Wicked all do this. These shows ask for an emotional by in for a challenging journey. Musicals can be fun and satirical, like Avenue Q, but those shows are infrequent."

Mary Todd Lincoln didn't want to be in a musical. She wanted to be a cabaret performer.

Late to the game here but boy was this bad. I’ve seen every new musical this season except Swept Away and this was by far the worst. Rogers was out, but her understudy was the best thing about the show. While the second act opening number in black and white was very good (though a pale imitation of what Tommy Tune did in his heyday) most of the dancing was sloppy and boring. Mitchel repeated the Timeless to me number with a second act number with Prince and DeRosa that was just embarrassing. The male lead had no charisma and oof was the book horrible- nonsensical and not funny. And the worst thing is that the entire premise of the show is that contemporary New Yorkers are obsessed with Betty Boop.