Review: DEATH BECOMES HER at Ohio Theatre

If you look at the listing of recently produced Broadway shows, you might be wondering if you are reading Playbill or TV Guide. Two shows, SCHMIGADOON and STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOWS are based on television shows. A handful of others, THE LOST BOYS, THE FULL MONTY, HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL, WARRIORS, and PURPLE RAIN are among the many adaptations of movies out there.

Converting something from the silver and TV screens to the theatre comes with its own risks and rewards. Some are great; some are BACK TO THE FUTURE. Make it too much like the original and you bore the audience. Stray too much from it and you alienate fans of the original production.

DEATH BECOMES HER, which runs Oct. 7 through Oct. 11 at the Ohio Theatre, is the rare production that not only captures the magic of the 1992 original film, but expands on the characters Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis created. Its cast is amazing, the script is as funny (or in some scenes funnier) as the original, and the songs are fresh and quirky.

The show revolves around the frenemy relationship between vain movie star Madeline Ashton (Jackie Burns) and her ne’er-do-well friend Helen Sharp (Kristen Beth Williams). Each wants what the other has. Helen desires Madeline’s glamorous life of riches, looks, and fame.

Madeline just wants to make Helen miserable.

She seduces Helen’s less-than-glamorous fiancée Ernest Menville (Ken Marino), who has three things the actress desires: he’s a plastic surgeon, he has a pulse, and he belongs to Helen.

Burns sets the tone for her character from her opening number, “For The Gaze.” She undergoes about five “how did she do that?” costume changes and channels her inner Liza Minnelli with an over-the-top bravado.

Williams’ character unravels from a timid, jealous writer to vanilla-cake-frosting-addicted mental patient to being one of the few people able to steal the spotlight from Madeline.

Marino is caught in the undertow of these two scoundrels. He looks like he’s an emotional keel for the two women hellbent on killing each other. However, he goes from working on cleft-lipped children in Third World countries to being a bourbon-swilling, liposuction specialist in Beverly Hills.

Nasia Thomas is a delightfully devious Ponce de León as Viola Van Horn. She has a serum that will keep individuals from aging but at the same time, it is up to the individual to keep themselves healthy. “Dull, glowless skin, waddling turkeys, sagging, shapeless breasts,” Thomas says with a malicious wink and a sweeping arm gesture. “And that’s just the front row. Some people say (aging) is just nature’s law. I say those people just don’t have the money.”

A talented troupe of actors support that quartet, including inspired turns by Michael Buchanan as Ashton’s bane, long-suffering assistant Stefan, Louis Williams Jr. as Van Horn’s mysterious underling Chagall, and Otterbein University graduate Caroline Kane as Stacey.

Book writer Marco Pennette, who crafted his skills on such shows as CAROLINE IN THE CITY, UGLY BETTY, and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, provides deliciously droll lines. Perhaps the only misfire is Ernest’s declaration, “I don’t want to die of an old man’s disease.” The line is fine, but considering that Bruce Willis, who starred in the movie version, is suffering from frontotemporal dementia, it’s more than a little cringeworthy.

Julia Mattison and Noel Carey crafted songs like “Falling Apart,” “If You Want Perfection,” and “Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You,” that stay with you long after the final curtain. None of the numbers seem like they are there to further the plot but are integral to the show. Even “The Chase,” where Ernest is being pursued through Van Horn’s garden party, doesn’t come across as a Keystone Cops-styled number.

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