yet another High Fidelity review

[folkyboy]

Posted: 10/13/06 at 9:47am

It seems rather than offer Broadway a taste of the coveted “something fresh & new”, it’s going to give us (yet again) another recycled movie musical. We can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but it does leave me wondering if David Lindsay-Abaire didn’t just rip off the very idea from another familiar movie musical recently leaving Broadway: The Wedding Singer.

In High Fidelity, the main character Rob (hmm) recently gets dumped by his girlfriend and gets consoled by his buddies into getting on with his life. Granted, this doesn’t come across as successful, but we are left with a lot of pop culture humor references and way too many songs to advance a plot along. I’ll give the lyricist credit for making me tap my foot a time or two, but I can’t really say much for a lot of the confusion I’m left feeling when half the score segues together about twenty times (i.e. there were several scenes when I wondered how many tracks that would make on a cast recording).

Essentially, I have to say that it’s another bubble gum confection to fill the void for all the fans of The Wedding Singer. Those who don’t require a lot to move their Broadway obsession into overdrive will be very happy with this one. The sets are AMAZING. And you’re bound to enjoy a song or two, as well as laugh out loud at some of the smart humor. I can’t say it made much of an impact for me, but then neither did The Wedding Singer.

It’s good to know they followed the same format with both leading ladies, too. Jenn Colella has the same mediocre acting chops as Laura Benanti offered us yet thrills us with her vocal stylings. One wonders if she’ll leave the cast half-way through as well?

In fact, the only two standouts for me in the entire production were Christian Anderson as the emo sidekick with the pipes that resound out on the few offerings given to him to resurrect the Broadway cherubs out of the wings. And Jay Klaitz who jumps and splits his way across stage in well over 200 pounds of body frame that makes Tracy Turnblad blush. Giving it all they’ve got, they may just strike a chord with the crowd leaving the Al Hirschfeld just in time for their opening at the Imperial Theatre.

Or maybe I’m just ever the optimist…