“Boop! The Betty Boop Musical”

**** Anticipation! After being invited to view a rehearsal of the Broadway-Bound “Boop! The Musical”, I have been waiting for the previews to end, and opening night to come! Tonight was the night!

The CIBC Theatre was festive for the holiday season and the opening of the production that Jerry Mitchell has directed on its stage. Again, “anticipation”. The one buzz I heard a lot of is about the title character. Many audience members knew nothing about this classic cartoon character that started out as a dog and then became a sex symbol. I remember the cartoons and that they were in black and white. We had been told during our press outing that in this production we would see her world change from the black and white cartoon to real people in living color. Through the technical work of Projection designer Finn Ross, we watched it happen. Of course, credit has to go to the scenic designer (David Rockwell) and most certainly director Jerry Mitchell.

You will read many reviews and see many opinions on this play. I think the best way to describe what a review should be about is if in fact audiences will be entertained by the production and will they feel that they had a great value for their investment. Let’s face it, a night at the theater is quite expensive.

Mitchell has found the absolute perfect actress to play Boop. Jasmine Amy Rogers, from the opening number “A Little Versatility” will grab your mind and if you are of an age that grew up or even watched any of these film short/cartoons, take you back to a different time in your life. Note: I grew up thinking her cartoon persona started off as a cat, but it was in fact a dog.

So the story is that she is tired of doing film short after film short and feels the need to get away from being Betty Boop. Her grandfather, Grampy (brilliantly played by Stephen DeRosa) who has raised her is an inventor of sorts and has a machine that will allow time travel. The machine takes her from her black-and-white world to New York and a colorful hundred years into the future. The scene which included the ensemble dance number “In Color” is a burst of life bringing the feel of “Old Broadway” back to the theater. The choreography that Mitchell employs is powerful and we get our first glimpse of just how brilliant the music (David Foster) and lyrics (Susan Birkenhead) are.

While the book (Bob Martin) is genius, there are, in my opinion, too many stories going on. When Betty arrives in colorful New York she meets a little girl , Trisha ( deftly handled by Angelica Hale, who has an unbelievable vocal range) who is adorned in Betty Boop clothing. She is a huge fan of the celebrity and of course, Betty befriends her. It turns out she has a brother, Dwayne ( played to perfection by Ainsley Anthony Melham) who wants to be a jazz musician and they will eventually fall in love despite the fact that they live in two different worlds.

Trisha’s aunt, Carol Evans (Anastacia McCleskey) takes care of Trisha and has been hired by  Raymond Demarest ( Erich Bergan) who uses Betty’s celebrity to try to win the vote for Mayor of NYC. Betty sees through him and brings it all to Carol, convincing Carol to run against him ( she wins and he goes to jail).

Back to Grampy. It turns out that some 40 years earlier he had a love affair with Valentina ( the lusty Faith Prince doing her “thing”) and thus another story creeps into the picture.

Here is where I had a problem. The play is almost 3 hours long with one 15 minute intermission. Maybe, as exciting as it is, one of the stories could be shortened, or even eliminated. I am sure there will be a few more changes before it gets to New York, but all in all, I enjoyed every minute of the production from its costumes (Gregg Barnes), the lighting (Philip S. Rosenberg), the sound (Gareth Owen) and I don’t want to forget the cutest marionette Pudgy ( worked by Philip Huber).

The ensemble is top notch as well.Morgan McGhee, Ryah Nixon, Christian Probst, Lawrence Alexander, Colin Bradbury, Tristen Buettel, Joshua Michael Burrage, Gabi Campo,  Daniel Castiglione, Rebecca Corrigan, Josh Drake, RJ Higton, Nina LaFarga,  Aubie Merrylees, Ricky Schroeder, Gabrriella Sorrentino, Brook Taylor and a special note on the roles of the Director (Merrylees) and assistant Director (Schroeder)- great work!