HEAD OVER HEELS
Hudson Theater. Opened on July 26. / "As timid and awkward as the new kid on the first day of school ... lacks the courage of its contradictions." -- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
I CANNOT ARGUE WITH Ben Brantley, my distinguished and personable former colleague, that "Head Over Heels," the Go-Go's jukebox musical now rocking out at the Hudson Theater, is an important production. It's not. And it's far from a profound show. I don't even like jukebox musicals as a genre, but I thought the show was gloriously playful. And a hoot.
"Head Over Heels," based on Philip Sidney's 16th-century work "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia," takes place in an imaginary Renaissance civilization. And while Arcadia may not be Camelot, it's got the beat, which makes it a wonderful place to live -- but is in danger of losing it.
Here are 10 reasons to check it out.
(1) The king is played by Jeremy Kushnier (right), a Canadian-born actor who is younger than he looks and has the presence of a grizzled Broadway veteran. Tom Alan Robbins, left, plays his viceroy.
(2) The queen is played by Rachel York (in photo above), who looks the way Anne Boleyn might have if she'd had the good fortune to live past her 30s. (Poor Anne was beheaded in 1636.)
(3) Pamela, the wildly desirable single-girl princess who is besieged by desirable suitors, is the fat girl.* Bonnie Milligan, making her Broadway debut, plays Pamela as confident, gracious, energetic, slightly arrogant and ultimately quite happy as a lesbian in love.
*(Any reporter who is three dress sizes larger than she was in college is allowed to say that.)
(4) The handsome young shepherd (who loves the other single princess) finds reason to dress like an Amazon. And finds that it brings out his long-neglected (and crucially important) feminine side. It all starts when he happens upon a trunk filled with costumes.) The actor is Andrew Durand, whom you may have seen in "War Horse" or "Spring Awakening." He's in the photo with Alexandra Socha.
(5) The Oracle of Delphi, Pythio, is beyond gender. Played by Peppermint, a transsexual star of "RuPaul's Drag Race," the character makes Ethel Merman look like Sandy Dennis. According to the review in The New Yorker, the oracle comes close to stealing the show with proclamations like “Thou better workest!”
(6) Everybody gets great choreography, even Musidorus' four adorable sheep Thank you, Spencer Liff.
(7) "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" (actually a Belinda Carlisle solo, not a Go-Go's group hit), which is on the brink of being remembered as part of an insurance-company commercial, here turns into an R-rated dream ballet, shadow-puppet style.
(8) There are a bevy of varied gender-combination assignations here. One princess is in love with her handmaiden (Taylor Iman Jones, center, in photo). The king has a passionate crush on a beautiful Amazon warrior who's really a guy.
(9) There's even an old-fashioned Shakespearean "bed trick" scene.
(10) The sets, by Julian Crouch, are fabulously fake. This is the "Vacation" number, set on Lesbos.
READ MORE: ABOUT 'GETTIN' THE BAND BACK TOGETHER' (Yay, New Jersey!)
READ MORE: ABOUT 'PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL; (Hooker buys new wardrobe)
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