Hey, folks. I saw this last night, the last night of previews, and thought I would weigh in. I'm relatively new here (though a long-time stalker), and I'll admit a little intimidated. I love the theater, but I don't always know the right terminology to describe what I'm seeing or how I feel. (Who knew theater could be so complicated?) But I've learned a lot from reading the board, even if I still can't always remember the difference between a standby and an understudy! So here goes …
Overall I thought it was fun! Definitely entertaining – just don't go in expecting anything deep. I'm generally not a big fan of jukebox musicals, and some of the reviews on this board prepared me for the worst. So I went in with really low expectations – and maybe that helped. I think the low expectations also will inform some of my statements here, so when I say "This was really good" I might really mean "This was not as bad as I expected."
I knew a few of the Go-Gos songs, but honestly, even with those, I never paid any attention to the lyrics before. (Catchy music though!) Even without knowing the songs, I enjoyed it, and I think that actually made it seem less like a typical jukebox musical to me.
I thought the energetic opening number set the stage pretty well for what was to come. The excellent all-woman band completely overwhelmed the singing at opening, but this got straightened out quickly. (You don't see the band until the reveal at the end.) The costumes were kind of Elizabethan-meets-punk and mostly worked. I liked the choreography which included lots of coordinated arm movements I found fascinating to watch. The set – well, I guess the cardboard cut-out look was intentional to give it a comic-book fantasy look, but it also just looked cheap to me.
The rest of the show was generally fun and a lot silly, with a plot involving a lot of gender-bending. The plot itself was fairly thin, as you'd expect. It did seem like each scene was just a set-up for the song to come, and that got a bit monotonous, especially in the very long first act. But there was usually something entertaining going on, and many moments where I laughed out loud (which many comedies fail to achieve for me). I think the first act needs to be tightened up – maybe cut two songs, though I'm not sure where.
The acting and singing were very good, though I don't envision anyone winning a Tony. I found it funny to see Rachel York (in the role of the Queen) reminding me of seeing her in a similar role in Kiss Me Kate. I almost expected her to break out into "I Hate Men," Go-Gos notwithstanding. Bonnie Milligan was excellent as Pamela and quite funny in a choice role. I thought Andrew Durand was also a stand-out as the poor shepherd in disguise. Peppermint was cast perfectly as Pythio, the Oracle of Delphi. As good as they were, I felt like they all could have pushed the envelope a little further to draw out the laughs and make their characters a little more farcical. Maybe that will come with time. I also wished Pythio's costumes had been more outrageous. They should at least have exceeded what we'd see on your typical Ru Paul's Drag Race.
The show seemed like a cross between Xanadu, Mamma Mia, A Funny Thing …, and maybe even a little Pippin revival thrown in for good measure. (Except those shows were much better.) It didn't matter too much to me that the silly plot was developed around the songs, or that the songs were shoehorned into the plot, but I could see how that would annoy folks. I had trouble understanding song lyrics to some extent, so I mostly only got the gist of the songs anyway. (I had no trouble understanding the spoken dialog from my center orchestra seat, however, and some of it was quite clever.)
It may sound like I am giving this show a rave, but really it did miss the mark for me in many ways, and I'm not really sure how to describe this better. If it continues to evolve through its run in San Francisco and during previews in New York, perhaps this has potential. As it is now, I'd recommend seeing it, but it's not going to end up on my list of top shows for the year.
Interestingly the theater seemed nearly full last night – a Tuesday – at least in the orchestra, and the audience overall seemed to love it.
