Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – HEAD OVER HEELS is a really smart, mostly irresistible jukebox musical featuring songs by The Go-Go’s

• By drediman
• July 27, 2018
• No Comments

The company of “Head Over Heels”, the new Go-Go’s jukebox musical, at the Hudson Theatre.

One of the dark horses of the brand new 2018-2019 Broadway season is Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical set to the songs of the 1980s all girl band The Go-Go’s, which opened last night at the Hudson Theatre. In defiant contradiction to the band’s punk aesthetic (or maybe because of it), the musical is based on the Elizabethan prose poem The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney about a royal family who seeks, upon receiving an omen of ruination from The Oracle, to stay out of harm’s way. What ensues is typical of Elizabethan-era comedies – mistaken identities, plenty of cross-dressing, passions awoken, and a zany segue to resolution. Well, how was it? I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained by the whole thing.

The book by Jeff Whitty and James Magruder is actually a lot smarter and more sophisticated than many of the jukebox musicals I’ve encountered over the years. The book was originally conceived and written by Mr. Whitty, a Tony-winner for the still-running hit musical Avenue Q, which was subsequently not insubstantially revised by Mr. Magruder. Their work strikes just the right balance between accomplished literary reworking and very funny contemporary cultural flourishes. One of the fun things about these types of shows is anticipating how the writers incorporate pre-existing songs into the plot. Here, Mr. Whitty and Mr. Magruder have done an inspired job of wittily and hilariously springing songs – such as “We Got The Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” and even lead singer Belinda Carlisle’s solo hits “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and “Mad About You” – onto the audience from some rather unsuspected points in the story.

As in director Michael Mayer’s work in the award-winning Duncan Sheik musical Spring Awakening, Head Over Heels bravely walks a fine line between two divergent aesthetics, both visually (the winningly traditional sets are by Julian Crouch) and in its performances. Elizabethan theater and brightly hued punk rock are mashed together, and the results are jarring – sometimes awkward, admittedly – but most of the time irresistibly synergistic. Like Spring Awakening, the characters’ internal worlds, as expressed in song and unleashed from societal expectations and norms, utilize a wholly different vocabulary (i.e., The Go-Go’s songbook). It was fun to watch the cast, many of whom are given a chance to bask in the spotlight, have a blast wearing these two hats. Delightful turns were abound, particularly Rachel York (delicious), Alexandra Socha (who managed to be quite moving amidst all the mahem), Jeremy Kushnier, Andrew Durand, and pioneering transgendered RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 finalist Peppermint (oh-so droll as The Oracle).

RECOMMENDED

HEAD OVER HEELS
Broadway, Musical
Hudson Theatre
2 hours, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Open run