Review: TOOTSIE: THE COMEDY MUSICAL at Providence Performing Arts Center

TOOTSIE: THE COMEDY MUSICAL- Award-winning musical will have you in stitches all night long!

The Providence Performing Arts Center rocked the house with it's Tony-award winning TOOTSIE: THE COMEDY MUSICAL, an utterly hilarious and nostalgically-touching musical that hit the right comedic notes all night long.

When I think of TOOTSIE, I go back to a simpler time in 1982 when the movie became a runaway hit. I remember vividly fighting with my friends that Dustin Hoffman was a shoe-in for best actor (yes, we were strange) nod but my friends felt strongly Ben Kingsley had it in his performance of GANDHI (Gross). As usual, I lost and I am clearly still pissed about it.

Fast forward to TOOTSIE: THE COMEDY MUSICAL, which first opened in 2018 and took home the Tony for Best Book of a Musical that year and you'll find a lot of what you loved in that movie and more. Disgruntled actor Michael Dorsey, proving more difficult by the day to deal with and growing tired of rejection, decides to change course and audition as an actress instead. And let's just say he pulled it off excellantly but had no idea the impact it would have on all his life. Sure, there are some changes for the musical like Michael Dorsey, played so incredibly by Drew Becker, is not auditioning for a soap opera in his newly custom female attire but a Broadway musical instead. How fitting. Becker wonderfully masters both sides of this Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels coin in this performance and to be honest, I like his performance better as a woman, similar, alas, to Hoffman before him. I guess that's what happens when you grow to hate their alter ego.

Becker is surrounded by some incredible talent from Ashley Alexandra, who plays Dorothy Michaels friend/love interest Julie Nichols (look for her stunning voice in "Who are you?") to Payton Reilly as Dorsey's on again/off again girl friend Sandy Lester to Matthew Rella who plays the hilarious Biff-like character Max Van Horn. For this night's performance anyway, second understudy Matt Kurzyniec took the helm as Dorsey's comical roommate Jeff Slater who, on his own, stole a half a dozen scenes with his dry wit and sarcasm. When Dorsey first dresses as Dorothy Michaels to get that sought-after Broadway role, he asks Jeff how he thinks (s)he looks. "It makes you look difficult to abduct", Jeff notes. Now that's just a great, original line. And the play is filled with so many like that including "a director would rather watch a 3-D movie of his conception than to work with you again" and of course, the most famous line that got it's own share of shout-outs, "being a woman is no job for a man".

The two hour and 20 minute musical is also filled with some great performance numbers, sometimes overshadowed by it's non-stop humor including the most fabulous performance of the evening in "Unstoppable", the hilarious "This Thing" with Matthew Rella as Max and the amazingly challenging contemporary patter song "What's Gonna Happen" performed so wonderfully by Payton Reilly as Sandy.

Whether you are seeing TOOTSIE for the first time or like me, consider it an old friend, you will have a number of things to find pleasing-humor, first-rate acting and wonderful performances, all perfect for the entire family. In it, you'll find a good lesson that you don't always have to settle for the way things are always done, a perfect fit for many a generation.

TOOTSIE: THE COMEDY MUSICAL runs through October 30. For tickets go to Providence Performing Arts Center (ppacri.org)

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