Wow. Who would ever have guessed that Rachel York’s role in Disaster would seem like, well Shakespeare, compared to this.
My biggest problem (of many) was that I just didn’t care about any of the characters or their fates. Even in a show that’s just supposed to be “fluffy” and “fun,” you still have to be able to become invested in the goings on of the play and unfortunately I couldn’t bring myself to care about anything.
There’s lots of camp and cringe in the book, but the songs for the most part go over like a lead balloon. You quickly realize how few recognizable hits the Go-Go’s actually had. Aside from We Got the Beat, Vacation, Our Lips Are Sealed and Heaven Is a Place on Earth the rest of the “score” sounds like material that couldn’t even make the B-side.
It’s never going to be easy trying to force a story out of songs, instead of allowing the songs to spring from the story, but they did an especially bad job here. Stuff like Vacation is SO shoehorned in; Our Lips Are Sealed is the one exception that mostly works.
York is given nothing to do. The women doesn’t even have a solo! For show that has gay men on the creative team and proudly celebrates queerness in many ways, to forget to assign your a diva a show-stopping solo is unforgivable! Peppermint is fun, but the nature of character keeps her sidelined for much of the show and she rarely gets to interact with the rest of the cast. In some ways, she’s like the Arachne of Head Over Heels.
I liked Andrew Durand the best. He was probably given the most to work with and made the most of it.
I appreciated that they used real sets and not projections. I was afraid that the show would feel really cheap, like something that belonged at New World Stages, and while it still might play better there, whatever budget they had, they used wisely.
In order fit We Got the Beat into the plot, there was this stop prophecy that the kingdom would lose the beat or whatever, and there was all this talk about “the beat.” I couldn’t stop thinking the whole time about “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and what a superior song and what a superior musical Hairspray is.
Believe it or not, but I genuinely feel about not liking this show. It unabashedly celebrates queerness in all its forms in ways that few Broadway ever do. The message is in the right place, but the craft is not there.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!