Review: BEEHIVE: A 60’S MUSICAL at Desert Theatreworks Keeps Audiences Stomping Along
A Rollicking, Fun Revue with Meaning
BEEHIVE: THE 60’s MUSICAL, playing at Desert Theatreworks (DTW) is a revue, meaning that it has no real story. However, director, choreographer, and musical director Lance Phillips presents the show as what I would call a “jukebox documentary”. Lance, with permission from the copyright holder, “restaged the show and made it our own.” He wanted to present the “rising beehive” of activism that began in the late 1960’s.
The show starts with the music of the early 1960’s, when another “beehive” was popular: A teased and sprayed hairdo a la Tracy Turnblad to create a stiff construction that could add a couple of inches to the wearer’s height. The wind-proof beehive do created its own set of 60’s meme forerunners, such as Mad Magazine’s cartoon of a man telling his date, “I’d love to run barefoot through your hair,” but decides he’d rather do it with shoes on. A popular horror story from the era tells the grim tale of a teen who teased and sprayed her hair and refused to wash it to keep the height. She died of spider bites after spiders nested on her head. Fortunately, Snopes confirms it was an urban legend.
Back to the DTW show: The reason that I consider it almost a documentary is that it gives the history of each part of the 60’s, through background video and musical and spoken narration.
The four performers in the cast have fabulous pop voices, and incredible belts. All four are experienced Coachella Valley performers; Heather Bates and Linda Ceniceros are new to DTW and Kelly McDaniel and Coco Owens are DTW veterans. They all move professionally, with grace and vigor. They are a pleasure to listen to and watch.
Of course, a show is only as good as its director. Lance, DTW’s artistic director, served as director, choreographer, and musical director of the show, as well as coming up with the new staging and a new concept. He told me that he hasn’t put on a revue in a long time. It is clear that he has kept his touch.
Look for the video of people on crowded London streets running around in late 1960’s outfits, some of which were made from British flags. Remember the straight-across flat bangs of the period, which we wore if our hair would cooperate? Mine was too curly — I couldn’t pull it off. The girls in the video did.
I especially enjoyed the videos in the first number, titled “The Beehive Dance.” One of the videos evoked a combination of PacMan and Tickle Bee, an electronic game introduced in 1956. Using a magnet, you had to move the “bee” through a maze without touching it to avoid being stung. Who says that videogames are automatically more fun than what we Boomers grew up with?
The only problems on opening night involved some squealing in the sound and roughness in the video editing. Hopefully they will be solved shortly. And regardless of the minor problems, the audience didn’t seem to mind; the best measure of a musical revue is whether the audience claps and hoots and hollers. These theatregoers did all of that and were clearly having a rollicking good time. They also seemed to be moved emotionally by “I am Woman” and “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” during the finale.
Revues are often fun, but they rarely have the depth that BEEHIVE demonstrates about how women used the sixties to demand equality and a better world. Theatregoers who want a rollicking good time and some education should head over to the Indio Performing Arts Center for this nostalgic show.
Desert Theatreworks is located at the Indio Performing Arts Center, 45175 Fargo Street, Indio, CA 92201. BEEHIVE will play through Saturday, April 4th. Evening shows will play at 7:30 p.m, Wednesdays through Fridays and on Saturday, March 28th, with matinees on Sunday March 29th at 2:00 p.m. and on Saturday April 4th at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $46.50. Purchase tickets and obtain further information at www.dtworks.org or call (760) 980-1455.
The last play in DTW’s 2025-26 season consists of Arthur Miller’s THE CRUCIBLE (April 17-May 3, 2026).
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