Review: Broadway in Cincinnati presents BOOP! THE MUSICAL at The Aronoff Center

Musical dramas have been the defining genre of Broadway for the better part of the last decade, with shows like The Band’s Visit, Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, A Strange Loop, and many more taking center stage. However, it seems that every season, there’s a musical comedy trying to break through, with varying levels of success. Shows like The SpongeBob Musical, Shucked, and even Beetlejuice come to mind. This past Broadway season, Schmigadoon! took the top prize, and in many ways, it felt like the payoff for years of musical comedies falling by the wayside - always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. Boop very much feels like one of the shows that helped pave the way, but unfortunately, it fell through the cracks during its Broadway run in the spring of 2025. The show received mixed reviews, but no one could deny that it scratched a musical comedy itch we didn’t even know we had. Now, it’s getting another chance to shine with a national tour, which is currently playing in Cincinnati at the Aronoff Center.

The show follows Betty Boop, who, in an attempt to escape the stardom of her everyday life, travels to present-day New York City and enters the real world. There, she becomes entranced by every color of the rainbow as she navigates modern life. However, things don’t go as planned when she discovers that she’s just as famous in this world as she is in her own. She falls in love and makes new friends, but everything is left hanging in the balance when she discovers that the fate of her cartoon world depends on her being there to help it survive.

To me, the show harkens back to the madcap musical comedies of Broadway’s Golden Age, with shows like Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate, Promises, Promises, and even something as outlandish in premise as Brigadoon coming to mind. The music by David Foster is pretty great, with a few genuine standouts that could end up becoming modern standards: “Where I Wanna Be,” “She Knocks Me Out,” and “Something to Shout About.” The story is far-fetched in the way that only the most endearing musical comedies can be. And with a character as lovable as Aliya Grace’s Betty Boop, you buy into the whole thing because she feels more like a real person than the two-dimensional caricature we’ve come to know.

The show also feels like an old-fashioned musical comedy in the sense that it serves as a true star vehicle for whoever plays Betty. If your Betty isn’t a genuine triple threat, the show simply wouldn’t land. Luckily, the tour has cast Aliya Grace, who has talent in spades. Her vocals soar, her comedic timing and characterization are spot-on, and she can hoof it with the best of them in every energetic dance number. She’s truly a star and an incredible find as an up-and-coming performer. Her love interest, Dwayne, is played by Mason Ballard. His voice has an amazing, crooner-like quality that is sure to make you swoon, and he serves as the perfect straight-laced foil to Betty Boop’s cartoonish nature. Grace and Ballard have wonderful chemistry, and their voices complement each other beautifully.

The supporting cast standouts for me are Dan Mason as Grampy and Leah Faye, making her understudy debut as Trisha. Mason’s Grampy is perfectly animated and delightfully over the top, chewing the scenery and getting a laugh a minute with every move. Faye’s Trisha serves as a great audience surrogate: a girl who is just as obsessed with Betty Boop as so many of us are. She captures Trisha’s youthful optimism wonderfully, and her Act I ballad, “A Portrait of Betty,” gives her vocals a chance to shine. I also have to single out Adam Clarke as the puppeteer for Pudgy, Betty’s adorable dog. He maneuvers the marionette seamlessly, adding so much to every scene in which Pudgy appears. I was always delighted whenever we got more Pudgy.

On the technical side, the set is very minimal, but it makes great use of projection tricks as we transition from grayscale to color and back again several times throughout the story. The costumes are phenomenally loud and colorful in the real world, while the grayscale designs for the cartoon world are just as intricate and mesmerizing. The costumes truly take center stage in the Act II opener, “Where Is Betty?,” where original director Jerry Mitchell shows off the depth of his creativity with a simple but effective gimmick that sends the audience wild.

Boop isn’t perfect. At times, it’s cheesy, groan-worthy, and downright nonsensical. But that only reinforces my point: it feels like a modern-day version of a Golden Age musical comedy. Beneath its flaws lies a joyous evening of theatre, anchored by amazing performances (Aliya Grace in particular) fabulous costumes, and energetically bouncy choreography. If you’re on the fence about this one, I can absolutely understand why. However, this reviewer is completely charmed by the show and is happy to know that, at the end of the day, it’s Betty Boop’s world, and we’re just lucky to be living in it.

BOOP! THE MUSICAL

Now - October 25th

Aronoff Center For The Arts

650 Walnut Street Cincinnati, OH 45202.