The hit movie "Beaches" is now a Broadway musical

 

I’m glad I never saw the 1988 movie “Beaches” because I could enter the Broadway version that opened last night at the Majestic Theatre with no previous visions or expectations.  I couldn’t have enjoyed Beaches: A New Musical more than I did.  The acting, the music and the costumes are excellent and the story, though predictable and involving a death, is funny.  I laughed throughout at Iris Rainer Dart (whose 1985 novel inspired the film) and Thom Thomas’s script.  Lonny Price and Matt Cowart direct.

The humor is largely thanks to the character of Cee Cee Bloom, played to perfection by two of the actors who portray her, Jessica Vosk as an adult and Samantha Schwartz as the pint-sized firecracker child Cee Cee.  It’s a hoot just looking at Little Cee Cee dressed like a miniature burlesque queen in a shiny red satin leotard (brava to Tracy Christensen for the dazzling costumes for this character throughout), with heavy make-up and her long curly red hair surrounding her tiny face. Practically everything that comes out of her mouth is a wisecracking delight.

Her opposite in every way is Bertie White (Kelli Barrett, adult, and Zeya Grace, child).  We first encounter her as a pretty little girl with straight dark brown shoulder-length hair walking on the beach in a light blue dress, white anklets, black patent leather shoes, a white straw hat and white gloves.  That was the look of proper little girls in that time,1951. She looked like me at that age, except for the straight hair, and I wasn’t born until four years later.

The two meet as children on the boardwalk in Atlantic City where Cee Cee already has her own one-girl show in which she sings, dances and tells jokes, many borrowed from the acts of popular comics.  Bertie is visiting from Pittsburgh with her uptight, domineering mother Rose (Lael Van Keuren).  The girls are instantly attracted to each other and sing the nice little duet (music by Mike Stoller and lyrics by Dart) “Wish I Could Be Like You.”

 

Bertie: My world is gonna stop

           If you’re not there to spin it.

 

Cee Cee: Don’t want a world that

                Doesn’t have you in it.

 

Together: Like ice cream goes with pie

                It will be you and I.

 

Schwartz has a rich, clear voice but I had trouble understanding Grace both when she sang and spoke.

The friendship continues into their teens through letters rather than actual contact.  Bailey Ryon plays Cee Cee and Emma Ogea is Bertie.  Their roles are small but the children return throughout and at times all three ages dance together to Jennifer Rias’s choreography.

As they move into adulthood one of my favorite scenes takes place in Beach Haven, New Jersey, where Cee Cee is performing in summer stock, but only in small parts, the most frustrating of which is as the dog in Peter Pan – in costume.  Bertie arrives looking like the proper young woman she has been raised to be, an older version of her child self, wearing a light blue suit with an A-line skirt below the knees and a matching pillbox hat, quite a contrast to the bohemian 1964 beach community.  She’s escaped from her mother and the wealthy stuffed shirt she’s expected to marry, Michael Barron (Ben Jacoby) and since she’s not a performer but is good at math, she’s assigned to work in the box office, for free.

By the time her mother’s tracked her down Bertie is in a long, flowing white peasant dress and, not seeing her mother, holds a costume for a production of Gypsy.  “I fixed Electra’s light-up tits. Now it’s right tit, then left tit then . . .”  She spots her mother and freezes. The furious Grace orders her home immediately but Bertie’s not leaving.

“I don’t care how things look anymore, Mother.  Now I care how they feel.  A miracle has happened.  Can’t you see?  I am changed.  I’ll shout it out loud.”

The company members gather around her as she sings “The Brand New Me.”

 

I’ve fallen in love with a girl and I’m proud,

And the girl’s the brand new me.

 

I am dancing to my own tune.

I’m a butterfly who’s escaped the cocoon.

So take back my pedigree.

And accept the girl you see.

 

Of course Rose will have none of it.  She storms off, telling Bertie she would regret her behavior.  Bertie is stunned by her own courage.

“Good heavens,” she says.  “That was so scary.  I’m still shaking.  Does anyone have a joint?”  Every member of the cast pulls out a joint from their pockets and offers it to her.  It’s hilarious.

The plot as they move through life is predictable, but that was OK for me.  I liked both women and enjoyed far more laughs than I’ve had in a show in a long time, right up to the final line, delivered by Bertie’s daughter, Nina (Harper Burns), who, like her mother, is transform by Cee Cee.