So what was the recipe for Bring It On? Far as I can tell it was:
4 parts Baby It's You projections
2 parts Wonderland dialogue
2 parts Good Vibrations costumes
2 parts Good Vibrations sets
Spritz of In My Life lemon reference
Blend well and you'll be certain to feel a little tipsy after.
Seriously it's messy, too long, kinda trashy and has character and situations with nothing at stake.
I haven't seen the original movie for years, but the musical has as much in common with plot of the movie as Lysistrata Jones does. The only similarity, for better or worse, is that the story involves cheerleaders.
There are four screens that are omnipresent that have some of the ugliest, cheapest looking projections since Baby It's You or the recent Guys and Dolls revival. For the first 40 minutes I wasn't sure if we were even going to see a physical set piece. A bed and some lockers show up, but that's pretty much it. The stage looks so big and vast, but it's not used well. There are no level- no staircases, no tiers. It's very boring to watch two and a half hours on an empty stage, unless of course, you're watching A Chorus Line.
The dialogue was awful and all over the place. One guy had a boner and the lead said to him, "You better shut the barn door because your horse is showing!!" One minute a character would be saying, "I'm pretty sure there's an app for that," and the next making a MISS CLEO (!!!) reference. When would this kids ever have heard about Miss Cleo! Another guy raps that he would be a basketball player like Scottie Pippen. Wouldn't be wanting to be like Kobe or maybe Lebron? The book makes you cringe, but it's often wickedly campy.
The greatest camp moment though is the evil cheerleader's big song in act two. It was worthy of something from Rachael Lily Rosenbloom, complete with (slight spoiler) tearaway clothing! It's called "Killer Instinct" and I greatly fear it will be cut. It's totally unnecessary to try to flesh out this character so late in the show and she's such a cartoonish villain; the number was bizarre.
There are two genuine problems that are fixable before opening. The plot hinges on the lead cheerleader, Campbell, getting kicked out of her school because of a new redistricting zoning law. She goes from popular cheerleader in a White, rich environment to a "gritty" Black/minority environment where she's the outcast. The Black school is WAY more fun than her old school, but it takes forever for the plot to get her there.
They don't have a cheerleading program there, but there is a street dance crew. There's major missed opportunities here to teach Campbell some "street" dance moves. She needs to adapt and this is a dance musical. Show us some dance! Integrate it into the story! Then Campbell must teach her new minority friends how to cheer. This is all done off stage. The montage in the movie where they watch Sweet Charity, learn different styles of dance etc, and then integrate them into the cheerleading would be perfect here. For a show about cheerleading and dancing they TALK a lot about it, but don't use it very well.
The other big fix needs to be that the characters have higher stakes. Once Campbell is kicked out of her school you are 100% rooting for her new school to win the competition. The movie kept it interesting by pitting Dunst and her squad against Union and the rival Black school (who were actually better/more exciting). Now that the two leading ladies are on the same team there's no tension. There's no wanting both teams to win. It's fluff, but they need to make the journeys worthwhile for the characters.
The score is forgettable, except for a catchy tune called "It Ain't No Thang," which is bubblegum pop and funny. There are way too many ballads, mostly given to Campbell, and they're rough. She tries her best, but is forced to stand downstage center and sing for 4 minutes about how hard her life is.
As junky as the show it is often very entertaining due the high camp value. My friends and I will be quoting lines for weeks. Weird that we had a thread about Wonderland today because this really reminded me of that.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
