Megan Hilty & Jennifer Simard Dazzle

An ideal rejoinder to the ever present Broadway Sucks These Days gripe concerning the too-many movie-to-stage variations has arrived in the end, and it’s a easy three-word response: Dying Turns into Her. A nearly good big-budget, broad-appeal musical comedy that improves in each manner over the 1992 movie, director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli’s wildly entertaining car for 2 of our greatest singer-actor-comedians on any stage as we speak renders the movie-as-source snipe nugatory.

Don’t waste a minute’s thought on which of the 2 – Megan Hilty or Jennifer Simard – come out on high with this delight of a vacation present (let Tony voters lose sleep over that one subsequent spring). The 2 work collectively just like the elements of a harmful magical potion, every delivering exactly nuanced but stupendously massive performances in quantities that, have been they off by a lot as a fraction, would completely undo the magic.

And singling out Hilty and Simard actually isn’t meant to decrease their costar Christopher Sieber, who greater than retains tempo even within the much less showy position of a milquetoast husband. He’s terrific.

So a refresher concerning the ’92 film. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, with a script by David Koepp and Martin Donovan, the movie starred Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as longtime frenemeies, with Streep enjoying the vainglorious Broadway actress Madeline Ashton and Hawn her plain-jane author good friend Helen Sharp, the underdog from whom the grasping Madeline steals every little thing, even, ultimately, a good-looking fiancé simply because she will be able to. The years-long feud finally leads the 2 ladies to, individually, search out a magic everlasting youth and sweetness potion that every believes will present the last word one-upsmanship benefit over her rival.

On the time of its launch, the movie was a field workplace hit however, for viewers, a little bit of forgettable right here today-gone tomorrow, at the least till years later when it was embraced as a cult favourite by the LGBTQ+ group.

It will not be an understatement to recommend that the homosexual group pointed the way in which to a Broadway hit – now there’s a shocker – with the Dying Turns into Her workforce, together with Gattelli, ebook author Marco Pennette, music writers Julia Mattison & Noel Carey, the forged and the designers taking free rein to boldly think about a campy, over-the-top universe Zemeckis barely imagined. This can be a musical that grabs its viewers by the jugular quick and doesn’t let go. Hilty’s Madeline stars in a live performance present “Me! Me! Me!” that includes a boisterous opening quantity titled “For The Gaze,” and any doubt of its double which means is put to relaxation when this hardest working lady in present biz quick-changes into Liza, Judy and Julie Andrews from Victor/Victoria.

The musical’s power not often lets up from there. Even after Madeline steals Helen’s beau Ernest Menville (Sieber, who, not like Bruce Willis within the film just isn’t a mortician however somewhat a high-end plastic surgeon, one of many musical’s many enhancements), sending Simard’s maniacally resentful writer-wannabe to the madhouse, solely the sound ranges diminish, not the laughs: Simard, so very, very humorous in Broadway’s most up-to-date Firm (which costarred Sieber), does a girlish, sing-songy Child Jane-esque loony tune earlier than dropping to a sinister whisper with “Madeline must be useless.”

That may not learn so humorous, however in Simard’s execution, it slays.

As the 2 rivals keep it up their hatreds by means of the years, every plotting and planning towards the opposite, they individually occur upon the key to eternally youthful life: a potion devised by the mysterious, maybe-witch Viola Van Horn (Michelle Williams, previously of Future’s Youngster), who lives in an enormous, cathedral-like lair (all achieved up in purples and blacks, simply one of many present’s many attractive collaborations by scenic designer Derek McLane and lighting designer Justin Townsend).

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Viola sings (backed up by her ever-present refrain of “immortals” attired by costume designer Paul Tazewell in beautiful flesh-toned physique fits tattoo-striped with glittery, purple swirls).

Anybody who noticed the film is aware of full-well what that warning entails: Eternal life implies that the our bodies of the undead will carry each gash and break and shotgun gap acquired by means of uncareful dwelling. For the always-battling Madeline and Helen, that’s some severe scaring: Madeline, shoved down the Sundown Boulevard-style mansion stairs by Helen, finally ends up with an Exorcist-level head twist in one of many show-stopping illusions designed by Tim Clothier; the much less mentioned, the higher the shock, however that slow-mo, twisted-limb stair-tumble is a stunner, maybe topped solely by a good funnier second when a swung shovel sends a specific physique half crusing off the stage.

Wearing one outrageously glam robe after one other, Hilty and Simard give two of the funniest performances this facet of Oh, Mary!, and their powerhouse vocals – mixed or solo – take Dying Turns into Her to the rafters and again. Once more, good luck to these Tony voters.

And what wonderful musical materials they should work with. Mattison and Carey have concocted a knock-’em-dead assortment of killer songs that ship up present tune conference whereas celebrating each one with love and care. From the razzle-dazzle of “For The Gaze” and Viola’s spooky “If You Need Perfection” and on to the anthemic “Alive Without end,” the songs are pure ear sweet, the lyrics sensible and sharp. Sieber will get his personal massive quantity with a drunken, falling-apart little bit of desperation known as “The Plan,” whereas Williams, whose sinewy R&B pop vocals are pleasing even with out the assured belting capability of her costars, will get her greatest second within the slinky “Don’t Say I Didn’t (Warn You).”

With too many different grace notes to enumerate, some demand mentioning: Charles LaPointe’s eye-popping hair and wig design, Joe Dulude II’s make-up design, Cha Ramos’ combat path, Doug Besterman’s orchestrations and, not least, a frequent scene-stealer of a efficiency by Josh Lamon as Madeline’s put-upon assistant Stefan, a kind of amalgam of Thelma Ritter in All About Eve, Robert Michael Morris’ Mickey Deane in Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback and nearly any character performed by Dwight Frye.

After treating the divas to a stunning efficiency on harp, the gofer can’t resist a little bit of braggadocio. “Prime of my class at Julliard,” Stefan says, adopted by a slight pause after which, “Now, in the event you’ll excuse me I’ve to go clear cat puke out of a Birkin bag.”

On this life-force of a musical, even the assistance will get to shine like so many sequins on a prima donna’s finery.

Title: Dying Turns into Her
Venue: Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Director/Choreographer: Christopher Gattelli
Ebook: Marco Pennette
Music: Julia Mattison & Noel Carey
Solid: Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Christopher Sieber and Michelle Williams, with Marija Abney, Lauren Celentano, Sarita Colon, Kaleigh Cronin, Natalie Charle Ellis, Taurean Everett, Michael Graceffa, Neil Haskell, Kolton Krouse, Josh Lamon, Sarah Meahl, Ximone Rose, Sir Brock Warren, Bud Weber, Ryan Worsing, and Warren Yang
Operating time: 2 hr 30 min (together with intermission)