{"id":2359,"date":"2005-02-03T17:24:32","date_gmt":"2005-02-03T22:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2022-10-09T15:50:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T19:50:42","slug":"bad-review-with-a-bit-of-a-redhead-ramble-preamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2359","title":{"rendered":"The Beach Boys Musical: A Bad Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Broadway show just opened. It is called Good Vibrations<\/i><\/a> and it is made up entirely of Beach Boys songs. I believe that the curly-headed runner-up guy in the first American Idol <\/i>was originally slotted to be in it, but, due to mysterious reasons, backed out.<\/p>\n

So. Its a Beach Boys musical.<\/p>\n

There is a precedent for this show being a success, by the way: the whopping cash cow that is Mamma Mia<\/i> – but apparently Good Vibrations<\/i> is not, ahem, going down that path. The reviews just coming in …<\/p>\n

Now Mamma Mia<\/i> – I remember the buzz through New York about it before it opened. Like: what? A musical of Abba songs? That is so silly. So STUPID. No way will that fly.<\/p>\n

Well, that show opened in 2001 and it is STILL running.<\/p>\n

I haven’t seen Mamma Mia<\/i>, so I can’t judge it – but I believe that when it opened (right after September 11) has a lot to do with its thundering success. I wrote a long heartfelt piece about it … it’s called The Man with the Dusty Gray Boots<\/a>. The post goes all OVER the place – but I think it might be one of the most open tender pieces I’ve ever written. It’s about Broadway shows … but then it’s NOT.<\/p>\n

Not to mention the fact that I will never, as long as I live, forget the face of the man in the dusty gray boots. Ever. I still get random letters from firemen who stumble over that post.<\/p>\n

Back to Mamma Mia<\/i>: I saved Ben Brantley’s review … because it seemed almost historical, something written directly in the wake of this catastrophe … a theatre reviewer going to see a play, and reviewing it … during September 2001? What can be more surreal? And Brantley, as opposed to trying to pretend business is usual, and pretend that Mamma Mia<\/i> was just another play on his list, put that whole Sept. 2001 experience that all New Yorkers went through into <\/i>his review. It was extraordinary. I wept a couple TEARS reading the REVIEW TO “MAMMA MIA”, mkay?<\/p>\n

And he LOVED the show. Not as a theatre critic, really, but as a person who needed an escape. Desperately. A person who so appreciated the escape that was “Mamma Mia”. (Critics so often forget that most audiences just want to forget their problems for a bit … they want to laugh … and escape into another world … and so if a movie or a play accomplishes that for most people, then … what the heck is there to criticize?) Brantley was blatantly saying: “I needed this. I needed that catchy music. I needed to forget my troubles. Mamma Mia<\/i> works wonders.”<\/p>\n

His review makes me remember those dark weird days, wearing a surgeon’s masks as I made my way to the PATH train on 14th Street, seeing National Guardsmen run by, lines outside the Salvation Army, the Missing Persons wall outside of Ray’s Pizza, and being able to smell the acrid smoke rising from downtown when the wind changed … In the midst of that, this cream-puff of a musical made up entirely of Abba songs, opened. The incongruity! The weirdness! New Yorkers having been dealt a near-fatal wound … and this cheese-ball opens uptown? Well, not a huge surprise, it became a massive hit. A well-beloved hit. And Brantley, a reviewer who is famous for saying it like it is, RAVED about it, in one of the most heartfelt reviews I have ever read. (In that post of mine I link to above, I quote a couple of excerpts. If you’re interested, they’re really quite wonderful.)<\/p>\n

Good Vibrations<\/i>, however …. Well. You know how I delight in bad reviews. Brantley reviewed the show.<\/p>\n

And let’s just say this. His first sentence is:<\/p>\n

Even those who believe everything on this planet is here for a purpose may at first have trouble justifying the existence of “Good Vibrations,” the singing headache that opened last night at the Eugene O’Neill Theater. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mmkay. Ouch. It gets worse.<\/p>\n

[Good Vibrations] features a lot of washboard-stomached performers who give the impression of having spent far more time in the gym than in the rehearsal studio. As they smile, wriggle and squeak with the desperation of wet young things hung out to dry, you feel their pain. It is unlikely, however, to be more acute than yours. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brantley, however, is kind enough to say, later on:<\/p>\n

Since the performers really aren’t to blame for the aimlessness of “Good Vibrations,” I won’t mention any of their names, though there are a few who make you feel that smiling should be outlawed for a while. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brantley does mention the precedent of Mamma Mia<\/i>, but then says:<\/p>\n

But while “Good Vibrations” dutifully culls from its hot-ticket predecessors, the sum effect is of a lumbering, brainless Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together from stolen body parts and stuffed into a wild bikini. From its cutely clich\u00e9d script (which begins, “Once upon a time there was a far-off land called California”) to its haphazard choreography, the show feels as if it simply gave up on trying to figure out the balance of nostalgia and satire that can make this kind of show-biz exercise profitable. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Holy crap, Brantley, how do you really feel???<\/p>\n

Here’s the review, if you’re interested<\/a>. Theatre critics can be a nasty snobby lot … who don’t like ANYthing … but with that Mamma Mia<\/i> review, Brantley won my respect forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Broadway show just opened. It is called Good Vibrations and it is made up entirely of Beach Boys songs. I believe that the curly-headed runner-up guy in the first American Idol was originally slotted to be in it, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178259,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions\/178259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}