Review: ‘Boop! The Musical’ opens in Chicago with a new Broadway star, far from a cartoon
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Given that she is playing a baby-faced, anatomically impossible cartoon character known mostly for a wink, a center-parted coiffure and a five-word catchphrase, the relative unknown Jasmine Amy Rogers turns in an astonishingly fleshed-out performance at the heart of “Boop! The Musical,” which opened its pre-Broadway tryout at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago on Wednesday before an audience that included singer Katharine McPhee and, more improbably, Bill Gates. Boop-oop-a-doop!
Rogers will be a shining new star as Betty Boop in the latest show directed by Jerry Mitchell, the fifth highly polished musical this maestro has opened before Broadway in this city and a modestly scaled, family-oriented show wherein there is a great deal to like, and much more work still to be done, especially in the wildly uneven Act 2.
Rogers, though, already is the complete Broadway package: a stellar vocalist for the lush score by David Foster and Susan Birkenhead, a subtle comedic natural when it comes to Bob Martin’s book and, above all, a warm-centered and vulnerable performer who humanizes the central character in a show that has yet to surround her with sufficient truth for this director and choreographer’s signature emotional trajectory to achieve all it could. Mitchell is a talent scout of formidable skill and Rogers is a discovery neither he or Broadway will soon forget.
Given that Betty Boop appeared only in Max Fleischer film shorts and was at her peak in the 1930s — a decade when she starred as everything from a trapeze artist to Snow White to the owner of a traveling medicine show — she offered a relatively blank slate for Martin. In a book that nods to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Back to the Future” and “Barbie,” he posits that Betty has become bored with the day-to-day grind of the film studio and desires a vacation. Thanks to a time machine built by her frequent co-star Grampy, she finds herself in 2023 New York City, first at Comic Con (where a cartoon character should be able to fit in) and then all over Manhattan, befriending Trisha, a needy teenage superfan (played by the charming 16-year-old Angelica Hale) and falling in love with Dwayne (Ainsley Anthony Melham) and even getting involved with politics. Trisha’s mom, Carol (Anastacia McCleskey), works for Raymond (Erich Bergen), a sleazy pol running for mayor.
Following its out-of-town tryout in San Francisco, “Wicked” famously pared back all of the scenes that did not involve the two central women and “Boop!” should take a leaf out of that successful playbook. Betty is so empathetic and intriguing that whenever she leaves the stage, things just start to sag. Job One here is to bring the supporting comedic characters up to the leading lady’s level of truthful material, especially the crucial Grampy (Stephen DeRosa), who seems to be in a whole different musical from Betty as he falls in love with the modern world’s Valentina (Faith Prince, no less). Grampy gets few laughs and DeRosa, a respected talent, seems trapped in a comedic conception that is just not working. Prince, as you’d expect, is both enigmatic and funny, where and when the material allows, but her role and that entire plot B just fizzles out emotionally. It could be so much more.
The show begins in black-and-white in the 1930s and I could not for the life of me understand why the behind-the-camera characters spoke flatly like they were in a Betty Boop cartoon, not making them; it would be far better for the show if they were honest creatures of their era, which would be contrast enough. That first section is played far too fast (true of much of the show, really) and fails to really establish Betty’s wants, needs and cartoon soul. From there, we go with Betty to color and the present day and it would be far better to snap into the new reality; the current gradual transition ruins the potential surprise baked into a very appealing scenic design from David Rockwell. Gregg Barnes’ costumes are a blast and both the lighting (from Philip S. Rosenberg) and the sound (Gareth Owen) are top-drawer; the sound contrast with some other shows in town is palpable.
Much of what then happens in modern-day New York is hugely enjoyable to watch, with lots of stranger-in-a-strange-land fun from Martin, especially when Dwayne and Betty head to a downtown club where Betty reveals her true jazz-age self. That’s a very clever, if overly rushed, scene and a perfect match for Foster’s lush and formidably orchestrated score. Given the talent of the performers playing the lovers and Mitchell’s peerless skills with theatrical romance, there’s much too little stage time devoted to that story. Instead, a self-actualizing Betty gets involved first with a bad mayoral candidate (he’s a sanitation guy, precipitating the kind of gags that could not be a worse match for the otherwise classy gestalt of the show) and then his morally superior campaign manager, who takes over — but Betty never spends any meaningful time with her so her endorsement doesn’t really track.
The scenes that work, and work they surely do, are the ones where Mitchell works his signature magic: the romantic moments; Betty befriending of one of her fans, Taylor Swift style; the homages to New York City’s chaotic brand of beauty; the celebration of inclusive love. All of those moments are sufficiently potent here, I think, that “Boop!” will work very well once it keeps Betty at the center of everything. The other fillip it needs for success is richer existential contemplation of the kind that gives you goosebumps, and that Martin did so well in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” The piece needs to lean in far more to the difference between being a cartoon figure without any single story and drawn by others, and being a real woman finding a real voice; the emotional possibilities are endless there.
Foster’s score is, without question, more stylistically uniform than the typical Broadway song suite, but then this songwriter’s wheelhouse is mine, and will be plenty of mainstream ticket buyers’, too, and this show has a suite of sticky numbers that the target audience will just love, including the Act 1 close, “Where I Wanna Be,” the 11 o’clock number “Something to Shout About” and the sweet ditty “Sunlight.” I’d throw another one in the direction of the star, especially in that jazz club, given that she seems to be able to handle everything.
Except perhaps to really commit to the catchphrase itself. No reason to fear; it’s a point of reference and Rogers should “oop” and “doop” with pizazz and pride.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “Boop! The Musical” (3.5 stars)
When: Through Dec. 24
Where: CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.
Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Tickets: $28-$106 at 800-775-2000 and www.broadwayinchicago.com
