The core ethos of The Heart of Rock and Roll may possibly be finest expressed in an early scene by the musical’s exasperated head of HR, performed by Tamika Lawrence, who accedes to its peppy hero’s scheming by shrugging and indicating, “Fine! What the hell. It is the ’80s.” There is a great deal to unpack in that trade alone. The Heart of Rock and Roll is about a cardboard-box business exactly where the head of HR is a very important character. And it’s established in the ’80s — like really set in the 1980s, in the similar way that the French portion of EPCOT resembles actual Paris: There are tons of prop Walkmen, a profusion of crimped hair, and much more shoulder pads than a Margaret Thatcher impersonator convention. The tunes are all Huey Lewis and the Information. The plot is a baroque fantasia of ’80s film tropes. And good! What the hell. I had pleasurable.
It assists that The Heart of Rock and Roll is the funniest new musical of the time — not a higher bar to distinct, contemplating the typically dour and/or self-critical competition, but an achievement however. The ebook (by Jonathan A. Abrams, who shares a credit score on the story with Tyler Mitchell) is just spritely and shameless ample to charm, in the vein of Shucked prior to it. The gist of it is this: Our hero, Bobby (Corey Cott), utilised to be an aspiring rock star but has presented it up to operate at a cardboard-box factory I’m very absolutely sure the alternative of item is to justify an assembly-line choose on “It’s Hip to Be Square.” Bobby’s boss, Mr. Stone (John Dossett), operates the spot with his uptight daughter, Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz), but the finances are iffy, so they (Lawrence’s HR female, Roz, incorporated) all stop up going to the 1987 Midwest Packaging Convention in Chicago, where by they courtroom enterprise from the magnate of Strategy Property Furnishings named Fjord (Orville Mendoza, whose dialogue may well as well be “bork bork”) and where by Cassandra also operates into her peroxide Wasp ex-boyfriend Tucker (Billy Harrigan Tighe). The proto-Lean In lessons of Doing work Woman, shenanigans of Risky Enterprise, hedonism of Cocktail, and even the greed of Wall Avenue have all been jammed into a blender (nevertheless all those people films’ seediness has been strained out). Tucker pursues Cassandra with the ominous single-mindedness of somebody who made use of to be in an a cappella group. He happens to have not long ago still left a career in Tokyo, since “I last but not least figured out what’s actually critical in existence: non-public equity.” That is a person of several groaners you just have to respect for their audacity.
If it’s as noticeable as a neon indicator the place all this is likely, nicely, there is one thing to be mentioned for clear illumination and bright most important shades. Director Gordon Greenberg applies a mild touch and a little bit of wit to the proceedings, inserting sight gags whenever attainable. When Bobby declares his appreciate late in the show, Cott asks an audience member to keep a boom box around their head in imitation of Say Just about anything … When Fjord insists on using a conference in the hotel’s sauna, the scene improve is effected by acquiring a member of the ensemble with a cheese grater of a 6-pack wander throughout the phase in a towel. (Jen Caprio’s costumes also tend to preserve Cott shirtless or, at minimum amount, sleeveless each time feasible.) Lorin Latarro’s choreography enacts a very similar sort of humor. Tucker’s tries to win again his ex are established to “Give Me the Keys (And I’ll Push You Nuts),” executed with the backing of his fellow Princeton Undertones, who Transformer them selves into the shape of a auto. A single dancer acts as the doorway that Cassandra slams when she gets fed up with Tucker. As Tucker rolls down his window to shout immediately after her, the dancer pliés down toward the ground like he is the glass by itself. By Act 2, we get a whole-on desire ballet set to “Stuck With You,” in which Cassandra imagines a foreseeable future with Tucker exactly where they settle down into a peaceful suburban everyday living. That prospects to alcoholism and, somehow, seeking to stab him with her stiletto heel. You can near American Psycho, but you cannot mute the sociopathy lurking inside these Huey Lewis and the Information synths.
In the spirit of Reaganomics excess that “Hip to Be Square” embodies, for superior or worse, Greenberg seems to have informed his actors that, in all situations, more is much more. While Cott and Kurtz are the show’s relative straight gentlemen, he’s veered into gleeful himboism, while she, a the latest veteran of Wicked, has built her character all prim style-A Galinda. They’re mugging, but when compared to the rest of the forged, they are rather tame. Lawrence’s Roz has several sassy retorts and as well little genuine character to play, but she lays into what she’s provided with comprehensive motivation. Raymond J. Lee, as one particular of Bobby’s previous bandmates, proves as soon as yet again he’s received a killer deadpan, each line shipped at minimum 45 levels askew. But Tighe as that Princetonian ex could be likely most important of all and delivers just one of the most maniacally odd performances on Broadway right now (Eddie Redmayne wishes his Emcee have been this bonkers). There’s a moment where by he twirls down to choose up a ukelele in advance of mincing offstage when Cassandra rejects one of his developments that I can only look at to the actions of a possessed Victorian marionette.
The consequence of all that ’80s excess is that there finishes up being small room still left in The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll for any emotional fat. Dossett provides the show with what minor grounding it has emotionally — there is a convoluted backstory to his floundering loved ones company that he flecks with human-scale pathos — but there is very little message to latch on to, apart from the ever-generic admonition to follow your heart and, of program, believe that in the “Power of Love” (a tune also currently being carried out a number of blocks in excess of in Back to the Future, exactly where there are a lot more special consequences but less fantastic jokes). I know beverages and concessions have to be bought, but an intermission kills the momentum here, as do the makes an attempt to convert Huey Lewis and the News quantities into heartfelt 11 o’clock ballads. In the minute, it is simple to chuckle along with The Heart of Rock and Roll’s relentless charm offensive. As shortly as you have a very little length from it, as with a lot of an ’80s fad like crimped hair or the War on Medicine, the thing looks a large amount a lot more questionable. Sure, the demonstrate pays lip service to undermining some of the rampant informal racism and sexism of those people ’80s movies, but it is nonetheless all about rooting for our squeaky-clean straight white heroes. As a great deal as the jokes about capitalist excessive are satire, it is difficult to uncover anything also subversive in a jukebox enterprise which is a de facto boomer-bait brand name extension.
To its credit rating, The Heart of Rock and Roll attempts to get out before the excitement wears off. The 2nd act lags and then accelerates around the position wherever Bobby’s decision amongst rock and cardboard gets apparent. While Abrams delights in adding new difficulties to the ebook, he appears to get bored of its circumstances about 3 quarters of the way as a result of, and the exhibit slams into its denouement at 90 miles per hour. There are a few strains of tossed-off explanation, right in advance of the big finale, about why several threats to our heroes’ very well-getting are no lengthier an issue. You can go after your desires and also settle down! You can stay away from the chance of a hostile takeover if you are … pure of heart and have some financial commitment income from a Swede! The heart of rock and roll is however beating … as lengthy as you do not assume also challenging about it.
The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll is at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
