Theater evaluate
THE Coronary heart OF ROCK AND ROLL
Two hrs and 30 minutes, with just one 15-moment intermission. At the James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 West 48th Road.
Here’s one thing I under no circumstances imagined creating five many years ago: In 2024, there are no musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber at present running on Broadway, but there are someway two that element the songs of Huey Lewis & The News.
Even much more shocking is that one of these shows, “The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll,” which opened Monday evening at the James Earl Jones Theatre, has turned out to be an underdog emphasize of the season. (The other, “Back to the Upcoming: The Musical,” did not.)
Rolled out modestly, very little “Heart” is also a whole lot much more fun and proudly frivolous than any of its sober-minded neighbors. It’s potentially the 1st time in my everyday living that I have been content to see a confetti cannon at curtain contact.
The exhibit is hilarious, as well. Established in 1987, the musical is not only a brightly-coloured time equipment again to the decade of massive hair and boomboxes, but the lighthearted Situations Square of not so extended in the past.
Because “Heart,” breezily directed by Gordon Greenberg, remarkably is one particular of just two new musicals on Broadway more than the earlier 12 months — out of an absurd 15 — which is 100% a comedy.
Lewis’ catchy hits like “Back In Time,” “The Electricity of Love” and “Hip To Be Square” are paired with e-book-writer Jonathan A. Abrams’ profitable jokes about human assets and IKEA. There is rock and rolling in the aisles.
I never necessarily mean this as a slight, but Abrams’ person-with-a-plan tale could be ripped from a lovably lousy 1980s motion picture these as “The Key of My Success” or “Highway Household.”
In fact, as Bobby, a Milwaukee manufacturing unit employee who’s seeking to climb the corporate ladder, the dishy and talented Corey Cott is the spitting picture of the latter film’s star Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing.”
Bobby’s workin’ for a livin’ at a cardboard plant, operate by Mr. Stone (John Dossett) and his daughter Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz), but he goals of mounting the ranks into a plum revenue gig.
After “Kinky Boots,” you would imagine there was no extra cleverness to be mined from assembly-line shenanigans. Mistaken! Choreographer Lorin Latarro has the solid accomplish a campy faucet dance on a significant piece of bubble wrap that’s “Anything Goes” fulfills the Monty Python coconuts.
Immediately after Bobby goes rogue and fails at signing a major client, the manager gives him the ax. Decided to do well no matter, he follows Stone and Cassandra to a conference in Chicago with buddy and HR director Roz (Tamika Lawrence) to try out one much more time to gain the account of a wacky Swedish furniture keep founder named Fjord (Orville Mendoza).
Though being at the Drake Hotel, a romance blooms with work-obsessed Cassandra, even however she’s also remaining chased by her preppy ex-boyfriend Tucker (Billy Harrison Tighe, a genuine smarm-er). And Bobby also starts off to have the urge to rejoin his outdated rock band, The Loop.
You see what I mean about the plot resembling (absolutely on objective) wacky ‘80s videos? “The Heart of Rock and Roll” is basically “Cocktail.”
Cranked-up antics ensue on Derek McLane’s established that starts as Tremendous Mario Bros.-style pipes of the manufacturing unit, then whooshes to bubblegum plush settees at the hoity-toity Drake and eventually a concert venue.
This Wonka-fied vision of a workplace is populated by sensational dancers and singers, who fuse rock, pop and musical theater styles with ’80s informercial grins.
But they sell the tunes with knockout comedy. There’s a Richard Simmons “Sweatin’ To The Oldies” parody, and a dream ballet for Cassandra about how horrifying it would be to marry her ex.
Kurtz can make for a caffeinated version of Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl” — quirky, optimistic and appealingly awkward. And Lawrence, as irritated Roz, speaks fluent punchline. Taking part in the Swede, all Mendoza requires to do to get laughs is weirdly say sauna (“soooow-nuh!”).
When most musicians hand more than their catalogue to a Broadway exhibit, it’s for a respectable biography like “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” or “Jersey Boys.”
But there is anything correctly kitschy about Lewis’ upbeat songbook, which famously accompanied a flying DeLorean, getting matched with a guitar-taking part in hero who tends to make cardboard.
The power of like, after all, is a curious point.
