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Mickey Jo
So tell me, Ernest, how much did you enjoy me dramaturgically? And my answer is enough to go back for seconds. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a professional theatre critic here on social media and from time to time I fly over to the United States to go and see as many Broadway shows as possible. Now, on my last two trips, I saw the musical Death Becomes Her. I saw it in November in late previews, just slightly before they were having press performances and what I deemed a little bit too early for the show to be really reviewed, but I still really enjoyed it. I then saw it again in January, a decent amount of time after it opened during a blizzard, whereupon I had the privilege to see the performances of the show's two principal leading lady understudies, Kayleigh Cronin and Natalie Charles Ellis, performing in the roles usually played by Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, respectively, who I had seen back in November. And not to completely derail myself before I even begin this review, but I actually think seeing Something Twice is the best way to see something, to truly see a piece of theatrical work and then to be able to review it, because I got to experience it for the first time, not knowing the film, not knowing the source material, and, you know, being surprised by it, not having listened to anything beforehand. I then got to go back having watched the movie and understand it as an adaptation, but also understand how purposeful all of the choices are because I know what's coming, because I know what's happening. And also seeing different performers in the roles, you get to understand much of it is the brilliant material and how much of it is their inspired performances. Anyway, I'm gonna. I'm gonna review Death Becomes her for you today and I'm very excited about it. This is the gayest new musical on Broadway and I'm going to tell you exactly why. If you have had the good fortune of seeing this already for yourselves, let us all know what you thought about it in the comments section down below. And if you want to enjoy more of my reviews, make sure you are subscribed right here on YouTube with the notifications turned on somewhere below my face so that YouTube lets you know every time I share a new video is another review or another Broadway vlog. I am going back this spring. I don't think I will see Death Becomes her for a third time, but I can't make any promises or make sure you are following me. If you are listening to me on podcast platforms with no further ado, let's get into it. Why did I Love Death Becomes her so this is a musical Adaptation of the 1992 cult classic film starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Horn and Bruce Willis, making it just slightly older than me. This arrived on Broadway at the Luntfontanne Theatre last year, calling itself a revitalized musical comedy and starring in those iconic roles Broadway legends and heavyweights Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard and Christopher Zieber. All three of them a hilarious trio alongside one of Destiny's children, Michelle Williams in the role played on screen by Academy Award nominee Isabella Rossellini, although under a different name, she has a different name in the stage musical, that being one of a handful of changes made from the film, I would say in general to speak to the adaptation, the musical is more laugh out loud funny. It's interesting that the film is really satirizing and spoofing the then increasing Hollywood culture of plastic surgery and trying to defy the aging process, which if anything now has just become even more extreme with the dawn of Ozempic and everything else that's happening. Whatever the heck Lindsay Lohan had done to her face, which by the way was exceptional work, I assume it involves a mysterious curse. Now if you know nothing about the plot of Death Becomes where I'll give you a brief spoiler free overview. We meet Madeline Ashton, who who is starring in a Broadway musical. She is a gay icon projecting nothing but confidence and diva energy out on stage, but when we meet her in her dressing room, we come to find out that she has insecurities about her wrinkling face about, you know, the aging process that she can't slow down or reverse no matter how much she may wish to. She's also something of a vapid self involved monster. This is even more exaggerated in the stage production. We see this in the way that she treats her slightly fearful assistant and also the way that she gives a performance of warmth to her visiting friend, or should I say frenemy Helen. Now Helen has just seen the show with her fiance, Dr. Ernest Menville, who she brings as sort of ammunition because she knows that the fact that she is engaged to a plastic surgeon is going to drive Madeleine wild, both because Helen is engaged, having a successful love life, and also because he's a plastic surgeon. And surely enough, it does. Madeline sets about seducing him for herself and reigniting an extraordinary feud between the two women, which takes on Mythical proportions compounded by the mysterious work of one Viola Van Horne, who curates a secret society of individuals who would love to live forever youthful and beautiful. All possible via the effects of a mysterious magical potion. A little drop of magic in a world obsessed with science, as she calls it. Siempre viva and whatnot. But mysterious and powerful as this potion may be, it also has serious consequences, to which perhaps a little more attention ought to be paid by Helen and Madeleine. As the years move forwards, the tables keep turning in terms of which of them is able to make the other more jealous with their beauty and success. And soon enough, it all becomes wildly heated, murderously heated, but campy and hilarious and filled with musical numbers all the way. I also, before we move on and talk about the material, want to talk about this being a queer show. Because it's always been a film embraced by the queer community, if only because you have these two iconic actresses going at each other and projecting big diva energy and seeking glamour. And if this is done initially in pursuit of a man, it's ultimately done in spite of him. And there's qualities within that that inherently endear the thing to the gays. What I love about the stage musical is it takes that and it kind of gives us a little bit more. There are so many ways in which this subtly and not at all subtly nods to the queer community. Madeline's big opening number in the film, she performed a song called I See Me, which interestingly enough still remains in the stage show, but in a different context, is now a big medley where she sings Everything I do is for the gays. And then that is the repeated refrain, it's for the gays. And during this she gives you a hammed up Liza Minnelli performance, doing an impression in a red sparkly suit. And there's a tear away to reveal Judy Garland. It's not only two gay icons, but it's mother and daughter. She has a nod to Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria in there, but incorporating a progr pride flag. Like not just doing the rainbow suits with top hats and assless pants for all of the dancers, which they do, but including the progress pride flag that is so beautifully meaningful and was really unexpected. And there's more too, because there are subtle things in what they do with the ensemble blocking. There are moments where couples are just walking in front of the theatre and they are same sex couples. There are things that they do with the costuming. We're going to talk a lot about the costuming in this show, my good. But allowing the Costuming to be gender non specific, the inclusion of non binary performers within the ensemble and the idea of non binary dance tracks within the ensemble. So we're not just gender segregating everything to the male ensemble are going to do this and then the female ensemble are going to do this and the men are going to dance with them. But like all of that taken away from this show and instead everyone's just hot. Everyone's just doing this sexy dancing in these great outfits. And it's no longer gendered so much of it, which I think is really cool. And it's not La Cage and it's not the Prom and it's not having huge conversations about queer emancipation. It is still a campy, silly musical comedy about these dramatic divas trying to kill each other. But it's nice that something treasured and beloved by the queer community that honestly probably owes its cult iconic status to the queer community, like the fact that the film of Death becomes her endures as much as it does. And really the fact that this was brought to Broadway in the first place, it's nice that that show would pay homage to and give back to that community, even in very small ways and very silly ways. And I think that's charming. Let's move on now and talk about the material. I've said it's funny. I've said it's campy. Are the songs any good now? Actually, before we get to the songs, I want to talk about Marco Pernet, who is the book writer who has credits in television on Desperate Housewives, on Ugly Betty. That does not surprise me whatsoever because you can hear so much of that witty and sassy dialogue and the exchanges between these two characters. I mean, they get all of the best lines, the utter falsehood of their friendship, and then the more overt shade that they dispense at each other when commenting on each other's looks and downfall. The way that Madeleine speaks in cinematic stage directions and has these recurring asides where she turns to the audience and says, close up, Madeleine conflicted. It is so funny and it is delicious. Let's talk about the score now. The music and lyrics are both credited to Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, who have written before for Off Broadway, but I believe are making their Broadway debut as songwriter with this production. They are in fact new voices to Broadway and this is a really confident writing debut from them. Musically and lyrically, it is akin to a lot of other comedies we have seen before on Broadway. I'm thinking about Beetlejuice. I'm thinking about the Addams Family kind of spoofing the musical comedy of it all to a certain extent. What's really interesting is I think this is the one that finally really lands it tonally. Something that the Addams Family was actually very ahead of its time for. It was not received well on Broadway. I don't think Broadway was ready for a show like the Addams Family that was so silly and irreverent. I think it actually had a very contemporary sense of humor that audiences at the time weren't necessarily vibing with. And true enough, now Addams Family is one of the most produced musicals worldwide. It's licensed everywhere. Beetlejuice started to move a little bit more in that direction. Really connected with a young audience, was gaining momentum and gaining speed throughout its two different Broadway runs. And Death becomes Her kind of feels like a show that is standing on the shoulders of each of those and has a lot in common with them. It is adapting late 20th century intellectual property with a contemporary sensibility, with a modern sense of humor. And I think it's a really solid score. I don't think it boasts necessarily individually, hugely striking songs that I would say are the best musical theatre songs I've ever heard. But for a musical comedy, the lyrics are always going to be more important. It matters more that I'm laughing. And in a song like for the Gays, I think it's just so inspired. There is such a wit to the way that that has been written when it turns into this disco fantasia, because of course it does, with all of the references in the lyrics, with all of the different nods in the music. This is before we have a conversation about the way that it's staged. It's just so brilliant. You then have a song in which Helen explains a little bit more about her backstory and her character about how Madeleine used to drive her insane, but now she's grounded and she's done therapy and she's on new medication. There are great lyrics in there. It's kind of a slightly more generic musical theatre song. There are a couple of those sort of alternately peppered in this show. But then you arrive to something like Tell Me Ernest, which is functionally rap, right? Like this has gone super viral on social media. But it's really just kind of a sultry spoken moment from mostly from Megan Hilty as Madeline and the recurring double entendre lyric which makes up the basis of each of these sections as she's singing to him, Tell me Ernest, what would you do to me aesthetically? And there's always a Little qualification to get out of any danger that she might be in by having gone a little bit too far with her dinner guests. That is a great song. It deserves to be blowing up as much as it is on social media. When I first heard it, I don't think I really was ready to understand what it was because this was not something I was expecting Megan Hilty to sing. She's got extraordinary pipes and you have her rapping, but it works. It works so well. Not all of the songs have necessarily stayed with me even after the second watch, but they are functional in the moment. They are belty enough, they are brassy enough, they are melodramatic enough. The ones that need to be, I'm thinking about let's Run Away Together. The only one I think is objectively quite tragic is there's a song that Ernest sings slightly later on in the show when he is alone in a little workshop. It reminded me of Doc Brown in a similar setting in the Back to the Future musical. And not just for that reason. I do think this is a particularly weak song. I think that's indicated in the way that they have to stage it with like, things around him coming to life as he is descending further and further into mania amidst, you know, legitimately bizarre circumstances. I think when you have to put in a recurring left field visual gag like that, it's kind of because, you know, the song is not that strong. I liked it a whole lot more the second time because Christopher Zieber was taking it to this campy, slightly fae, eccentric place and he was landing it because he knows how to land material. Because Christopher Zieber will get the laugh on Broadway. He wasn't making it work in previews because the song is not great, but he is managing to now convince you that it is. Otherwise. I think the best material musically in terms of melodies and composition goes to Michelle Williams as Viola Van Horn. She has this very melodramatic and striking slow, drawn out opening number where she's singing if you want perfection, where her big belty melodic line is contrasted by this little clipped ensemble version as they're all suddenly standing very still. It's a beautiful marriage of and choreography and lighting and staging that draws us into this mysterious and dramatic world. It is a bold choice not to open with either of the two stars. I think it pays off. She is a character who at all times remains poised and austere. So there's not much that she can do comedically. She doesn't get to be a clown like everyone else on stage. But when she sings a song like don't say I didn't warn you, and she is popping up in all of these different locations around the hospital that they find themselves in, that's an ingenious way of facilitating her in a comedic context, while she's just giving you great vocals. But we'll talk about the performances in due course. Next up, let me tell you about the creative team spearheaded by director and choreographer Christopher Catelli. Now, you may be familiar with Christopher Catelli's work from Newsies. This is not entirely like that. But he also worked on Schmigadoon. This is entirely like that. The man understands dance comedy alongside objectively brilliant dance and, like I said, sensual dance. And gorgeous visuals. This is all just as a show, so lush and so classic, with such a contemporary spirit to it. It feels so modern, it feels so right now in terms of its comedy, in terms of its energy, but in terms of the look of the thing, it's classic, it's old school, it's giving you big sets, it's giving you a ruched curtain, which is not only a gorgeous and completely thematic preset, but they use it in very clever ways because it rises. Sometimes it does this, sometimes it does this, sometimes a little section of it. I can't. Different parts of my arm separately. Sometimes a little part of it just goes up over here to reveal different doorways. The way that it frames the stage is consistently gorgeous, but also clever. It allows for a brilliant pace in these scenic transitions. The whole thing moves very swiftly. I don't know who I need to credit, whether it's the writing team or the creatives, with how much better I think Death becomes her the musical is than the film. I enjoyed the film, do not get me wrong. It's a little bit dated in obvious ways, but. But just tonally, this feels really distinct from that. This is so much more lively, so much more campy, so much brighter, so much more oversaturated in the best way. It takes itself less seriously. It's not quite as brooding and, pardon the pun, but there is also a brilliant vitality to it as well. One of my favorite components of the direction here is the frequency with which we use stunt doubles, but obviously noticeable stunt doubles. This begins in for the Gays. Before we even get into any of the body horror, horror stuff and the magical stuff, we have a dancer swapped out for Megan Hilty who is dressed as Liza. And they don't really try and hide the fact that it's not Megan as Madeleine. That's Sort of part of the joke. It's one of those moments where a dancer swaps out for the main performer and does, like a crazy dance combination and then the other person changes back and is like, oh, wasn't that exhausting? We've seen it done before. It's a classic joke. There's so many things about the staging. I mean, I think that's just a really perfect number. It is truly laugh a minute in terms of visual gags alongside the great lyrics. When she has that Dorothy reveal at the end of the song, and she's got the little pigtails and she catches the dog that I think the conductor throws to her, she does three heel clicks on anything for the gaze at the end of the song before the button. It's all just inspired. It is gay excellence, actually. But continuing with these body doubles, they obviously get utilized a lot more as we go into some iconic sequences from the film. There is a tumble down a staircase, and that is done differently in the show. The circumstances of it are also different in the show, I should add. But it's done in beautiful slow motion and you can hear it. And it's horrifying. But it's also hilarious because it's so clearly not. Megan Hilty as Madeline. I believe it is, in fact, a male company member. And there are some really slick illusions, but they know how to find the comedy in which illusions to deliver slickly and convincingly and which ones to ham up and have an obvious double do. There has got to be someone who is credited in here with this kind of illusion work, but I can't necessarily seem to figure out who it was. I will tell you that Derek McClane is responsible for the gorgeous and extensive scenic design. Justin Townsend for the lighting. Peter Hylensky for the sound design. Oh, here we go. Tim Clothier is the illusions designer for the show. Terrific work. Really brilliant work. But the creative I am most excited to tell you about and one who has done some of the most gorgeous and ingenious work on this production is costume designer Paul Tazewell. If that name is familiar to you, it's because he just won his first Academy Award. He just became the first black man to win the Academy Award for costume design for his work on the Wicked movie Wicked Part 1. But he has had a prolific career on the stage in many huge recent shows, and he has designed the gorgeous costumes for Death Becomes Her. I could talk extensively about each of these. They are so smart. They have to be very clever in some of the things that they do. I'm making a lot of hand gestures around here. If you know, then you know. But there is such a wit to them as well as being hugely glamorous and stunning. You have these gorgeous gowns and the final ones that Gen and Megan wear in the show. Jen's as Helen teases everything from all like this dueling detail going to an epicenter on her stomach here, which references something that happens in Death becomes her. And Megan's has this like false swooping neckline situation where it's all shifting to one side and it's all sort of on a diagonal slant. Again referencing something that happens. It ties in so brilliantly with where their characters are at that moment. I think it's so clever and just gorgeous to look at as well. All of the costumes in that opening Broadway pastiche section for the gays, so brilliantly witty. And in general with, I would say with the makeup team, with the wig team as well. The way that because we can't do extensive of prosthetics and we can't do special effects like they do in the film. As Meryl Streep watches parts of herself defy gravity, not unlike how Cynthia Erivo does. And so the way that they make them look a little bit more disheveled, a little bit more frumpy, and then return to something more glamorous, more youthful. Jen Samard has this really fantastic reveal in this stunning red dress. There are so many jaw droppingly gorgeous costumes. I really love all of the stuff that Michelle Williams character Viola wears and all of the other people in her orbit wear. I love when she gets that little finger wave wig. It looks so classic and so gorgeous. All of the little sparkly jeweling details, all of the clever nude illusion elements on the bodysuits that the ensemble wear. Nudity is a big thing with Isabella Rossellini's character in Death Becomes her the movie. And this very much feels like a nod to that as well. With all of these sexy ensemble dancers in these like velvety fabrics with like an exposed arm or a leg or like a midriff going on. But brilliant new illusion paneling to go with those costumes as well. It all looks stunning. One of the many, many ingenious ways that Death becomes her has been brought to the stage and running through all of it is wit and campiness and silliness and fun and classic and contemporary. Everything, everything in the show can be described with all of those adjectives, including the hysterical performances. Let's talk about this cast. So not to compare women. Listen, I've seen six the Musical I know what's up. But Megan Hilty as Madeline is empowered by nature of the material to kind of shine as diva supreme in this. It's such a wonderful role for her. I think probably the best role that she's played on Broadway and she is utterly glorious in it and quite different to Meryl Streep. I think the whole mythos of like taking on a Meryl Streep role as being this intimidating thing. She does not look intimidated for one second. But where she really shines lines is in all of the book scenes and in this bitchy dialogue that she has with Helen. The two of them have a really wonderful rapport and I. I think it's meaningful to the show that the genuine chemistry within their frenemy relationship shines through the entire time, even when they are quite literally at each other's throats. But the diva of it all, the ego of it all, the self indulgence of it all, Megan does it all so brilliantly and gets even funnier when the cruelty of time pushes her off that pedestal a little bit and she is trying to CL to what little of her career she has. It's so satisfying seeing the tables turn and seeing Helen being the glamorous one and seeing Madeline being appalled by this and seeing her distraught and crawling around desperate in a parking lot. All of it done in such a hugely over dramatic way. She gives a brilliant line reading of the iconic line from the film. Now a warning. She does listen. She does it all so well. And right there alongside her you have the hysterically funny Jennifer Simard. I am so pleased that over the last few years, and particularly with this show, she is really getting her dues as a wonderful comedic actress who also has a sensational voice. One of the most wildly impressive piercing high belts I've ever heard on a Broadway stage. And don't hate me for saying it, I actually think she manages to characterize Helen in a much more interesting way than Goldie Horn ever did. I think it's nuanced. Even though this is all a comedy, she has to play the straighter man to Madeline very often, but she gets her own moments of mania and ridiculousness. I love that the speaking voice lives somewhere between. Between like Joan Cusack and Jennifer Coolidge. And I particularly love, and this is one of my favorite parts about the show, how indifferent she is to Ernest in the second act, who seems up until then like this huge component of their rage towards each other, but who they are each pretty ready to discard when it comes to it. Now, speaking of Ernest, he is played by the wonderful Christopher Zieber. Again, it's a very different characterization to the one that we see in the film. And he even more so is playing a straight man, which very different from a lot of the other comedic musical works that we've seen him do on stage. He still manages to find eccentricities and campy moments, like I said in that song, that now works in the second act. But he is also, more often than not, just kind of a rubbery surface for the brilliant, gluey comedy of his leading ladies to bounce back off of. Now, Michelle Williams, let me tell you, I did not understand this performance in previews because she seemed just very focused on pathfinding. And like, I deliver this and I turn and I walk off the stage and listen. You figure a lot of things out in a preview period because by the time I came to see the show a couple of months, months later, she was so winning with the material. She was so funny with the material, playing off of the audience in a really thrilling way. She has this little bit of dialogue at the top of the show where she looks down into the orchestra and comments on everyone's dreadful appearances. And I think, like I said, it's very hard to make a character like this funny, but she found a way to make it happen. And the vocals are legitimately sensational. The height of the belting, the force with which she is landing those notes, sounding phenomenal. Really, really great. And there are a couple more key players we need to mention. Taurian Everett plays one of Viola's associates, who entreats Madeline, who at this point, frankly, has seen better days, to consult Viola about the way that she can rejuvenate her life. He has a few more exchanges which are brilliantly condescending. And Josh Layman is a true scene stealing standout here as Madeline's assistant, Stefan Farm. This is a character doesn't exist in the film, could be nothing in the stage production. And Josh Layman turns this into a moment, turns this into some of my favorite moments in the show. I think he should bow later than he does. I think he should be getting a lot more credit for the work that he is doing in this show. I think he is, in fact, a hysterical highlight. Every single sentence, every single word that comes out of that man's mouth on this stage is goldust. It is so perfectly characterized. It is so wildly over the top. It is so ridiculous. Ridiculous and campy and brilliant. It is genius comedic work that Josh Layman is doing in this show and if you hadn't got the sense of it by now, I think the whole thing is pretty great. I love Death Becomes Her On Broadway. I think it is not only a terrific show for the gays, but a hilarious musical comedy for anyone in the market. Go and check this out. Have yourselves a glorious time and if you've already checked it out on Broadway, let us all know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. What do you think of Death Becomes her in the meantime? Thank you so much for listening to my review. I hope that you enjoyed. If you did, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Turn on those notifications so YouTube lets you know every time I am sharing a new review or another theatre themed video or follow me on podcast platforms. If that is where you are hearing my voice. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching have a Stagey Day Subscrib.