HEAD OVER HEELS Reviews- Page 3

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:34pm

I think disparaging is an appropriate word. It’s misgendering and it’s downright offensive and hurtful. I’m flabbergasted. My jaw hasn’t come off the floor yet. The Times is not having a great week with their critics...

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:45pm

NYT: It’s not hard to judge someone by their weight or gender. SO DON’T DO IT

[singsingsing3]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:51pm

I was lucky enough to see the show tonight- I can see why critics don't like it but truly I enjoyed it. It doesn't take itself too seriously and is just a blast from start to finish. Bonnie Milligan is a star in her role, and I really enjoyed Alexandra Socha as well. 

[Elegance101]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:54pm

HeyMrMusic said: "I think disparaging is an appropriate word. It’s misgendering and it’s downright offensive and hurtful. I’m flabbergasted. My jaw hasn’t come off the floor yet. The Times is not having a great week with their critics..."

Yes, re-reading it now, it's not great. Don't want to seem like I'm defending him, as it was in poor taste!

Updated On: 7/26/18 at 11:54 PM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:56pm

I must have missed what he said that was so disparaging ..?

[BroadwayRox3588]

Posted: 7/26/18 at 11:57pm

Dolly80 said: "I must have missed what he said that was so disparaging ..?"

Making people who use they/them pronouns into a punchline is a big part of it...

[Kad]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:05am

fflagg said: "Who the hell would pay to see this? Maybe you could console Belinda’s gay son via Instagram. "

What an unnecessary comment. I thought you’d retired your  nonsense. 

 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:11am

I was immediately struck by that comment Brantley made about Peppermint’s use of “they/them” pronouns. Just because he doesn’t understand the purpose of it, or the importance to so many of a correct binary identification, doesn’t mean he should use it as a factor against the show. It’s not just some “flavor of the week” topicality issue as he seems to imply twice in that review. And his comments about it show his age and irrelevance more than most of the other comments he’s made about shows in the last few years.

Looks like it’s time for NYT to clean house in their critic department after this week. Not a good look.

[Kitsune]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:17am

ColorTheHours048 said: "I was immediately struck by that comment Brantley made about Peppermint’s use of “they/them” pronouns. Just because he doesn’t understand the purpose of it, or the importance to so many of a correct binary identification, doesn’t mean he should use it as a factor against the show. It’s not just some “flavor of the week” topicality issue as he seems to imply twice in that review. And his comments about it show his age and irrelevance more than most of the other comments he’s made about shows in the last few years."

This. Brantley's certainly allowed to not like the show, but his comment is petty at best, and needlessly so.

[antonijan]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:03am

NYT: (Brantley) You would think that a sexually polymorphous musical that combines a Renaissance pastoral romance with the songs of the 1980s California rock group the Go-Go’s would at the very least be a hoot, a show that could get sloppy drunk on its own outrageousness. Yet “Head Over Heels,” which opened on Thursday night at the Hudson Theater, feels as timid and awkward as the new kid on the first day of school.

Make that the new kid who longs to run with the wild crowd but can’t quite commit to being as bad as coolness demands. Directed by Michael Mayer, who has been more than competent at the helm of Broadway rock musicals like “American Idiot” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Head Over Heels” lacks the courage of its contradictions. It mutters deferentially when what you want is a rebel yell.

Paradox is at the heart of this production, which was conceived and originally written by Jeff Whitty (“Avenue Q”), then adapted by James Magruder (best known for his stage versions of literary classics). It was Mr. Whitty who had the idea of reimagining Philip Sidney’s “The Arcadia,” a 16th-century fantasy of trouble in paradise, as a picturesque frame for the pop hits of the Go-Go’s.

That all-female band, as you may know (and if you don’t, you are not this production’s target audience), rode its rough-edged combination of punk riotousness and surfer-girl sunniness to the top of the pop charts in the early 1980s. Though many of their hits ponder the vagaries of love, they otherwise have little in common with an arcane literary universe that is usually the province of graduate students.

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Still, this shotgun wedding of song and script promised to be a piquant novelty among jukebox musicals, a form that has been multiplying (and dividing) like amoebas since the Abba-stoked “Mamma Mia!” conquered the world. And its dichotomous nature matches the didactic thrust of a show that celebrates the importance of not being (and pardon me, for trotting out what’s starting to feel like the decade’s most overused word) binary.

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From left, Taylor Iman Jones, Bonnie Milligan, Andrew Durand and Alexandra Socha in “Head Over Heels,” a musical combining songs from the Go-Go’s with the 16th-century fantasy “The Arcadia.”CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times
In addition to straddling the gaps between historical eras — and high and low, and stately iambic pentameter and swift-kick rock rhymes — “Head Over Heels” also suggests that the divide between the sexes is the healthiest place for human beings to live. Its most catalytic character is Musidorus (an ingratiatingly incompetent Andrew Durand), a lowly shepherd whose love for the Princess Philoclea (Alexandra Socha) leads him to don the disguise of an Amazon (and if you think I mean the e-tailer, you are really not the target audience).

In his womanly warrior guise, Musidorus becomes the lust object of Philoclea’s parents, Basilius (Jeremy Kushnier), the king of Arcadia, and his queen, Gynecia (Rachel York), a restless castle wife with feminist stirrings. In the meantime, the pair’s elder daughter, a provocatively cast Bonnie Milligan, trampling with throwaway casualness on pretty princess stereotypes, finally figures out why she isn’t remotely interested in the many princely suitors who seek her hand.

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Why? Well, as she discovers while composing a poem to her ideal, unknown mate, her love would need to have a part of the anatomy that rhymes with “China.” (The script abounds in elbow-to-ribs dialogue, with lines like “My secret cave you penetrate.”) Pamela finally realizes that her true love is her own loyal, boyishly dressed handmaiden, Mopsa (Taylor Iman Jones), whose performance of “Vacation” with a chorus of mermaids and leaping fish is by default the show’s musical high point.

These assorted role reversals are overseen by the wise oracle Pythio (Peppermint, a contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” described in the program as “the first transgender woman to create a principal role” on Broadway). Pythio identifies as “nonbinary plural.” Dametas (Tom Alan Robbins), the King’s viceroy and father of Mopsa, finds himself strangely drawn to her — I mean them.

Characters clash, split and recombine in the time-honored tradition of Shakespeare’s great cross-dressing comedies “Twelfth Night” and “As You Like It.” The background for such melting identities is a picturesque, willfully artificial Arcadian vale by Julian Crouch (which makes deft use of pornographic silhouettes), with costumes to match by Arianne Phillips.

And where, you may ask, does the music of the Go-Go’s fit into ye olde Renaissance Faire and Camp Grounds? Songs like “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Mad About You” (actually, a later solo hit for the group’s former lead, Belinda Carlisle), and the title number could slide into almost any story about the follies of love.

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“We Got the Beat,” the number for which the group is best known (and which opens the show), is a less easy fit, a song of defiant exhilaration that is here used to suggest the metronomic nature of Basilius’s tradition-bound kingdom. (The genre-bending, generally soporific musical arrangements and orchestrations are by Tom Kitt.)

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Rachel York, center, as a restless queen with feminist stirrings in “Head Over Heels.”CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times
But, hey, that’s what jukebox musicals do: shoehorning in songs. It’s not as if pop hits haven’t been translated into period costume before. Think of the rococo video of Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass” or Madonna doing “Vogue” in 18th-century “Liaisons Dangereuses” drag. It makes sense that Spencer Liff’s choreography borrows so repetitively from the vogueing routines of drag shows appropriated by Madonna.

What’s lacking in the musical performances here is the go-for-broke exuberance that made the Go-Go’s so irresistible. While Ms. Milligan’s Pamela cuts loose and loud for a scenery-flinging “How Much More,” the songs are mostly delivered with diffidence, as if the cast were saving its energy for some undetermined Big Event.

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Only Ms. York, a Broadway veteran, pounces on her role with the precise attack that’s demanded. Peppermint, as might be expected, strikes a pose with aplomb and alacrity.

In a way, Peppermint is the most naturally cast performer. That’s because “Head Over Heels” is at heart a tamed version of the period spoofs made popular decades earlier by drag artists like Charles Ludlam and, later, in floor shows at the Pyramid Club. (I found myself thinking particularly of “When Queens Collide,” Ludlam’s intergalactic variation on Christopher Marlowe’s “Tamburlaine,” revived last year at La MaMa.)

Those shows were considerably more ragged than “Head Over Heels” — as I might add, were the Go-Go’s in performance. But such works owned their raggedness, with a rip-roaring brazenness and glee that exploded gender and good taste into smithereens.

Mining the same territory, “Head Over Heels” is more carefully and consciously instructive. In the first act, Musidorus stumbles upon a set of skeletons, which are accompanied by the written warning that “These sad remains are of our theater troupe, starved for lack of serious message.”

No such criticism could be applied to “Head Over Heels.” But its audience might leave the theater less hungry if this oddly earnest show could really kick up its heels and let the message take care of itself.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:15am

Mostly surprised by how much Brantley hated the cast members themselves, aside from Rachel York. I thought the cast was fabulous altogether.

[iwuldwf]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:58am

They're using "All hell joyfully breaks loose! - New York Times" as a pull quote in their new online ads.  It's from a puff piece about the show and the Go-Go's from a few weeks ago, but at least they have that, I guess?

[bear88]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 3:32am

BroadwayConcierge said: "Mostly surprised by how much Brantley hated the cast members themselves, aside from Rachel York. I thought the cast was fabulous altogether."

That's what jumped out at me. It's not a show for everyone, and plenty of people have slammed it here, both at the San Francisco preview and on Broadway. But the cast? The show I saw twice had several individual standouts (including York) and a strong cast overall. The cast, including the ensemble, built up such goodwill with me that I overlooked the show's flaws. And all the other reviews, even the ones that were harshly critical of the musical, have praised the cast and often singled out Bonnie Milligan and Andrew Durand. Brantley just seems off in this review for a variety of reasons. 

 

[bear88]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 4:06am

A rave from Sara Holdren in Vulture

http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/theater-the-go-gos-go-to-grad-school-in-head-over-heels.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s3&utm_campaign=sharebutton-t

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 4:22am

Sauja said: "It feels like the reviews are worse than bad: they’re indifferent. Most of these could be summed up with a collective shrug. I can’t say I felt especially differently about it myself. Well-intentioned. A generous try. But...meh."

I completely agree. While the reviews weren’t scathing pans, the indifference WAS scathing felt even more vicious than if they actively panned the show more. Brantley of course hated it, but otherwise the “meh” rang out loud and clear. 

I actually didn’t find Brantley’s comment about they/them to be so bad as he was clearly referencing Straight White Men as well and how this is a new “hot button issue” that will be shoehorned into every show for the next couple of years and then be forgotten. I took it more as a critique of how these issues are included to be trendy, rather than offering deeper exploration. (One could argue SWM delves deeper than HOH, but I thought Brantley was saying it’s all virtue signaling.) 

[newintown]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:29am

To those curious about the Jeff Whitty story, he has a very interesting story/statement on his Facebook page.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:33am

Except the difference, Whizzer, is that Peppermint IS trans and uses they/them pronouns and Brantley uses the phrase “he finds himself strangely drawn to her... I mean them” as an off-handed slight at what he considers to be the fad of gender non-binary pronouns. Right after he asserts that the word binary itself is perhaps the most overused word of the century.

I, myself, don’t fully understand the need to further subcategorize the human experience, but I would also never deliberately mock any person’s request to be referred to in whatever manner they wish. Especially if I were the head critic of one of the biggest print publications in the world. A critic of an art form which is traditionally liberal and open-minded, no less.

[BJR]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:39am

I'll take "virtue signalling" if it's actually employing the people it seeks to bring to the table, over snark signaling - any day.

[behindthescenes2]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:45am

you could take the comment, "her - I mean them." as either, a self- correction because this is the first time according to the show, "a transgendered person stars in a leading role", or to the referencing "White Men," or to the fact that one character is "strangely attracted to her" that would be because of the middling of the characters sexual being.  Or, it could be as many of the offense brigade these days declares, that it was a off-the-cuff snarky comment, an aside, a tongue-in-cheek flippant comment meant to demean and belittle another performer or person, which I sincerely doubt BB inteded it to be that way.  However, even if he did, must every preceived cut or slight be blown out of the water when it comes to a critic's review or a regular person? God, it must be so tiresome to have that heavy burden of having to pounce on every single word and it's double meaning intended or not - by anyone who expresses an opinion.  Some of these continuously rightous people must not rest well at night for fear they might miss a moment  to be able to make sure they contribute to the constant onslaught of finger-pointing, and chastising, and browbeating no matter what, and  that they must, must continuously fight the injustice of show business and continue to make sure it becomes a world where everyone is beautiful, everyone is talented, everyone can sing, everyone can dance and everyone can act.  Good luck and if you find that utopia - please leave directions where you have gone so the rest of us can nail that door shut.  You find your own utopia within not without take all of this with a grain of salt and a shot of tequila - it's okay.  The NYT and critics will be here long after we are all gone and all of the futile effort might make you feel good for the moment, but in the meantime - there's another show to do.

[JBC3]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:47am

Given the myriad of guidelines available right now for pronoun usage in publications, an editor should have stopped Brantley and his misguided usage slap.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 9:28am

Negative reviews plus poor grosses. This will be closed by Labor Day.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 9:31am

Oh, give it a rest, behindthescenes. Trust me, we’re not losing sleep over it. And if the alternative to the perceived finger pointing and shaming of critics is to just blindly let people keep being ignorant and dismissive, I’m happy to live on the other side of the line, frankly. The opposite of being un-PC isn’t nearly as stifling as you seem to think. It’s actually quite liberating. Which seems to be one of the points of Head Over Heels, funnily enough.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 9:43am

When the show so clearly spells out how to use pronouns correctly, we can’t give Brantley a pass, especially when he himself already said the preferred pronouns are they/them. It’s a very harmful and hurtful thing to do for the trans/nonbinary community.

Also, what is with the quotation marks around phrases like “nonbinary plural” and “the first transgender woman to create a principal role”? You wouldn’t say something in a review like, “The Playbill I received at Carousel dictates that this is ‘the first revival of the musical since 1994.’” Or “Straight White Men is ‘the first play produced on Broadway written by a female Asian playwright,’ it said in the Playbill.” No, those are just facts you are allowed to state.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 10:07am

Honestly, I was disgusted before I even got to Brantley's line about Peppermint. This early line did it for me:

"And its dichotomous nature matches the didactic thrust of a show that celebrates the importance of not being (and pardon me, for trotting out what’s starting to feel like the decade’s most overused word) binary. "

It just reeks of a lack of tolerance, and it was clear that he was going to hate this show no matter what.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 10:10am

Whizzer, I think you're giving Brantley far more credit than he deserves here. He is smart enough to know how that sentence would come off as, and has the dexterity to spell it out much more clearly if he was calling out the virtue-signalling. It's not just on him either, his editor should have stopped it from being publish the way it was.

I'm personally not a fan of giving a pass to these cases because micro-aggressions like this, when done by NYTimes, are validating a whole lot of people (hopefully just ignorant, but sometimes plain old jerks), who would be happy to see all transgender people go away from our planet.