On Friday night... and as part of our season tickets (as I sense I will have to rationalize this!)... we headed out to see Happy Days: The Musical... and to not keep you in suspense, let's just say this will not be one of the things I will say I am thankful for at the dinner table this coming Thursday.
If you are at all familiar with the state of musical theater these days, you know that there seems to be a dearth of an original idea ... so it seems we either have revivals of old favorites, songbook-based ones (i.e. Mamma Mia!), or one based on a movie or TV show.
This is not a criticism per se. It takes an awful lot to get a show to the stage... and a big part of that is $$$$, so the safest bet is to go with what's familiar to as many folks as possible. Thus we have the return of the beloved sitcom from the 70s - Happy Days - with the Fonz and the Cunningham family... aaaay-ing and jitterbugging their way with the hopes of saving their beloved Milwaukee diner, Arnold's, from being bought out from under their feet by some big corporation.
As you would expect, it's all very sweet with the "let's put on a show" enthusiasm and plastered smiles. But the main problem is that this is a straight and original musical. It is not a songbook ... so it does not contain any songs from the era... and while the memorable opening song (Sunday, Monday... Happy Days! Tuesday, Wednesday... ) does make a couple of appearances it is not enough to full resuscitate the nostalgia for the old TV show. In fact, without the Playbill in front of me, I can't even tell you the name of one of the songs in the show... let alone, hum it while I was walking out of the theater. Alas, it is not a satire/tongue-in-cheek show (ala The Brady Bunch movies) either ... although it tries from time to time (Richie notes that he "can usually solve a problem in a half hour")... and a joke about astronomical gasoline prices kind of fell flat with the current reprieve we are experiencing at the pump.
And while the cast does its best to evoke the characters we grew up with, for the most part they don't succeed. The Richie character is way to vanilla and certainly doesn't have the "aw shucks" charm that Ron Howard brought to the character... and I am not even sure if the Potsie character had any lines (Ralph Malph has the bigger role).
Most annoying was the revisionist take of Marion Cunningham, who now pines to be thought of as more than a housewife and hopes for a career or at least a job at the hardware store... and Fonzie's love-interest, the tough Pinky Tuscadero, who rides back in town in the show... though the character is now a blonde... looking and acting more like current badass rocker Pink... than the red-headed Pinky that Roz Kelly (sadly impressively I didn't even have to look that up on IMDb) created in her brief appearance on the TV series... and worse, here they take the true feminist Pinky and make her secretly pine of settling down and becoming a housewife... ugh!
The one savior of the show was Joey Sorge (pictured above) as the Fonz... he likely had the biggest challenge, but perfectly capturing all the bravado, charm, and charisma of the character.. and in fact, seeming quite the reincarnation of Henry Winkler of 30+ (oy!) years ago... and as you can see, he wasn't too bad on the eyes either (nor was his mini-me, cousin Chachi).
Again, everyone does their best.. and I have such respect to those who do live theater... but I just wish they had better material... and it is a bit surprising since this is coming from Garry Marshall who created the original series and many successful, crowd-pleasing movies (i.e. Pretty Woman). I just can't believe that those involved in this sat through it and thought "this is great!"... or that they didn't have any colleagues or loved ones willing to tell the truth.
But then again, maybe that just isn't necessary. I am not sure this show has any intentions of ultimately heading to Broadway, but with locked-in audiences thanks to being a part of a season ticket package.. it honestly doesn't have to be any good to earn back the original investment and/or turn a profit. Which is a pretty discouraging thought for this theater snob lover.
Daryl and I thought this was a joke when we first heard about it. I am for once not jealous of you getting to see this!
Posted by: Scott K | Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I have to take exception to the above review regarding its songs. My friends left and were still humming and singing the songs for hours. Legend in Leather sung my Pinky sounds like a future hit Broadway song. And ooooBop is a very catchy doo oop song with a hook.
Posted by: Frank Rosolino | Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 01:51 PM