Flashdance...What a feeling! (???)

Flashdance the Musical
Book by Tom Hedley and Robert Cary, Music by Robbie Roth, Lyrics by Robert Cary and Robbie Roth
Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
Wednesday, April 3, 2013

"What a feeling" really does sum it up. It's taken me a number of days to define that feeling; I'll be honest, I'm still at somewhat of a loss. During intermission I heard one of the ushers commenting that they're trying out the show before Broadway and still have some tweaking to do.

Tweaking doesn't begin to cover it.

As a semi-jukebox musical, it has the appeal of already-known songs going for it. Audiences come in expecting to hear "Maniac" and "What a Feeling," among others. They are not disappointed in this. I also enjoyed "I Love Rock and Roll" and "Gloria" (because I like to sing along with it). But as for the rest of the show...

The dialogue is awkward and stilted (presumably written that way--this could not have all been the actors' fault), the secondary characters were poorly drawn and developed (when the supporting male finally had his character-developing solo in Act II, I was hard-pressed to remember why I was supposed to care), and the special effects were unnecessarily overblown and not supported by the drama.

On the other hand, I can say that this is the first time I've ever seen a musical open with welding on stage. I hope it's the last.

For a "Broadway-bound show," this wasn't promising. Wednesday night theatregoers are either theatrical devotees or those out for a fun evening who couldn't care less what's playing. Both groups left en masse at intermission. Honestly, the most exciting part of the show was when a man at the back of the section in front of me got up and yelled at the women behind him for talking too loudly during the show. While he had a point (I could also hear her from ten rows back), his yelling didn't make it less loud. Later, he apparently felt his experience was ruined (or awful) as he was part of the crowd leaving at intermission.

I wish I'd have joined them. After the water pouring down at the end of Act I, it was anticlimactic.



On a related note: I'm about eight shows behind on my blog. Probably one of them deserved a shout-out it didn't get, and the rest were also fine. Or, if not fine, they were also shows I saw. There's a tidy pile of playbills on top of my printer hoping to receive some attention soon. I'll do my best.