Fall New York Theatre Tour VI

The last show I saw on our recent Best of Broadway tour was Xanadu. Against my better judgement, and listening to my daughter, who had seen the show and loved it, I decided to give it a try.

I'm convinced that someday, when there is a post-mortem on Broadway, the cause of death will include an addiction to regurgitating bad movies into campy, spoofy pastiche. This cynical, greedy, anti-creative practice will eventually lower the level of production until Broadway is suffocated by its own mediocrity.

That is, unless the product is really good.

Xanadu, based on a terrible 1980 Olivia Newton-John film, is great fun. It is blissfully aware of its own insipidness, embracing it and commenting on it in a clever, artful way.

At the center of this unexpected success is the book writer, Douglas Carter Beane, known for his screenplay for "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," and the plays, "As Bees in Honey Drown," and "Little Dog Laughed." He gets it. He dumped the movie dialog and started over. The result is funny, clever, and just right in terms of commenting on itself.

What's the plot? A surfer-dude sidewalk painter(Cheyenne Jackson) is visited by a Greek demi-god(Kerry Butler), who falls in love with him and they open a roller skating pavilion. Don't focus on the plot.

Kerry Butler is just right in the role. She's an excellent singer, and is cute, droll and self-mocking. She spends a good deal of the show on skates, and never forgets the absurdity of it.

It's obvious that a lot of the bits were established through improvisation, and Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa, as competitive demi-gods, are brilliant purveyors of this brand of comedy. Word is that they have a tendency to be so good that the director has limited them to one riff per night.

The New York Times says that at least 3 male cast members have been sidelined due to roller skating injuries. Who knew that art could be so hazardous?

I thoroughly enjoyed the production, and can't wait to do it at The Playhouse, if and when it becomes available.