BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical - Pre-Broadway Chicago — Page 6

Hell’s Kitchen has the Shubert. This is waiting til fall 2024.

Jerry is the perfection person for this fun show.


I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

I have loved everything I have heard from this show thus far. The various videos on TikTok have definitely piqued my interest.

I was told Alica Keys has Shubert.

I hope the tryout goes great in Chicago.

Opening Night is December 6, so critics’ reviews won’t be available until then.

Globefan said: "I hope they take advantage of the tryout process and see what works and what doesn't."

That's the entire purpose of a commercial out of town production, and Jerry Mitchell is no dummy when it comes to tinkering with a show out of town.

Anyone seeing BOOP tonight...........so?

Any reports on the merch? 👀

What’s the set like?

I liked Jerry Mitchell’s curtain speech at the start of the evening. Mitchell spoke from the front of the house, at the bottom of an aisle, between seats A1 and A101. He said to expect the show to get better during the next 5 weeks.

The overture by the 18-piece pit gave me goosebumps. How thrilling to hear a full sound.

The show has plenty of room for improvement, but this was an exciting first performance.

As expected, there are black and white scenes that alternate handsomely with color scenes.

The red steps of Times Square need a clearer segue to explain why we’re there. Act One ran about 72 minutes, while Act Two was about 62 minutes.

At intermission, a guest near me complained that there were too many production numbers.

But the production numbers make Boop glow. The opening black and white number tipped its hat to the glorious Holiday on Ice rotating chorus line that starts with Boop dead center then the spinning line extends to 3 dancers, then 5, then 7, 9, 11 and up to a whopping 13.

Grampy’s Act 1 number GET HER BACK was boring, and the character reminded me too much of Doc from Back to the Future.

I liked the simple black and white projections in the show. The animated bits were winsome, too.

Disappointed that the classy Faith Prince was buried under a ratty, long, stringy, white wig.

Shout out to 16-year-old Angelica Hale, with great presence in her scenes with Boop.

Tonight, the first 250 guests received a Boop tote bag.

Updated On: 11/20/23 at 12:01 AM

Oh I was wondering about the bags. They seemed like a hot commodity.

The Good: Jasmine Amy Rogers is a star. She's perfection. Her performance felt grounded and lived in considering she's playing a cartoon. Her voice is sensational. And she landed every joke like a pro. Very impressed with her. And this is the first performance. So she's going to be such a powerhouse when this lands in NYC. I'd say the cast as a whole is really strong. No fumbles or anything for a first preview. It all felt very polished, so hats off to them.

The music as a whole I really enjoyed. The orchestra sounded lush. The song in Act 2 between Boop and the young girl was really gorgeous. And I liked the big 11 O'Clock number and Rogers delivered it beautifully. It actually reminded me of the same exact moment essentially in the Barbie movie. There are certainly songs they can cut - Gramps song could be shortened or deleted. There is a lot of music and if they're all production numbers it does get a bit like "Oh we just saw this." The Times Square number went on too long. Geffen gives us some earworm melodies. The beginning of Act 2 felt a mess and, it's just a personal thing, but I hate when shows try to use like social media to look relevant and cool. That could be scraped, to me, and just give us Boop's solo moments.

The Bad: The design and direction is pretty bland and boring. Nothing really exciting happens with the direction. I know Mitchell is more of a choreographer, and there's a ton of dancing and I think he did a fantastic job there, but the rest felt very by the numbers direction. I wanted a "wow" moment or something. I couldn't stop thinking about Pretty Woman which, again, felt to me like so paint by numbers and thrown up on stage. I think the material here is far better than Pretty Woman so it works, but I wanted something interesting to happen or some grand reveal into the world of color. But it relies heavily on video screens. I wanted more actual set pieces.

The script is kind of all over the place, but it sort of works? Like it's a bonkers idea, but I think because the cast is so game and in on it that we actually do care about these people. I think the weird subplot with the Mayor and stuff could be taken out. I think because the audience is so in love with Rogers as Boop, I think I just wanted more of her and less of the side characters. I don't think the audience really cares too much about the Grampy and Faith Prince love story.

That said the audience went bonkers for this. I know it's a first preview, but it was very well sold and I think word of mouth will be very positive for this.