Head Over Heels opens on Broadway tonight at Broadway's Hudson Theatre (141 West 44th Street)! Let's see what the critics had to say! From the visionaries that rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Next To Normal, American Idiot, Spring Awakening and Avenue Q, the Head Over Heels creative team is led by director Michael Mayer with musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt and choreography by Spencer Liff. Head Over Heels was conceived and has an original book by Jeff Whitty and is adapted by James Magruder. Head Over Heels is based upon The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney. The creative team also includes scenic by Julian Crouch, costume design by Arianne Phillips, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Kai Harada and projection design by Andrew Lazarow. Casting by Jim Carnahan Casting. Kimberly Grigsby serves as Musical Director. Lisa Iacucci is Production Stage Manager. In the kingdom of Arcadia, the "beat" is divine. But when an oracle's prophecy of doom threatens its beloved beat, it propels the king and his royal family through a journey of mistaken identities, jealous lovers, secret rendezvouses and sexual awakening - where everything (and everyone) is not what it seems. Head Over Heels features 18 of The Go-Go's iconic hit songs including "We Got the Beat," "Get Up and Go," "Cool Jerk," "Vacation," "Our Lips Are Sealed," "Lust to Love," "Head Over Heels" and Belinda Carlisle's solo hits "Mad About You" and "Heaven is a Place on Earth." Ben Brantley, The New York Times: 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. Greg Evans, Deadline: For better or worse, Broadway's Head Over Heels is stuck with being known as "the Go-Go's musical" - better because of the good will floating on stage with all those lighter-than-air hits by Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, et.al., worse because the hard-working new production can't seem to keep itself from popping those effervescence tune bubbles one by one. Kelly Connolly, Entertainment Weekly: Directed by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), the joyful production dials the camp to 11; this is a show with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, except when it's in someone else's mouth. Matt Windman, amNY: Um, no. Contrary to the affirmatively cheery chant of its opening number, "Head Over Heels," a new jukebox musical on Broadway in which the hit songs of the all-female 1980s pop-punk band The Go-Go's are inserted into a ridiculous Elizabethan-era pastiche, has not "got the beat." That probably got lost long ago in the development of this oddball property. Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: To enjoy Head Over Heels, which offers quite a lot to enjoy, it is probably best to kick up your heels and put your head on hold. That's not to say that this saucy, boisterous musical doesn't have a brainy side, starting with its ambitious crossbreeding of four time periods: It grafts a 2010s queer sensibility onto songs from the 1980s-by the all-girl pop-punk quintet the Go-Go's (plus two hits from lead singer Belinda Carlisle's solo career)-and fits them into a 16th-century story that is set in ancient Greece. The dialogue, in iambic pentameter liberally sprinkled with thou and thee, contrasts amusingly with the unornamented lyrics of such go-to Go-Go's bops as "Vacation," "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat." Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: A lot of harder-edged Go-Go's fans who find their way through the door will wonder what on earth all of these silly theater people are doing with their beloved music, not just because it feels so far removed from its original pioneering context but also because the sensibility here so doubles down on fluttery theatricality at the expense of raw, charged, visceral, feminist pop. Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: If you have trouble imagining songs like "Vacation" and "Cool Jerk" fitting into a scenario depicting a royal family's romantic complications, you still will after seeing this relentlessly frothy musical, for which the term "check your brain at the door" could have been invented. The farcical, gender-fluid shenanigans are as campy as things get on Broadway. And that's saying something. Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: Michael Mayer ("Spring Awakening") has done what he can to put a directorial shine on "Head Over Heels." Spencer Liff's choreography is excitingly volatile and the sets and costumes are expensively fancy, while the five-piece pit band is as hot as a runaway atomic pile. Bonnie Milligan, a delightful performer with pipes to die for who previously appeared in the 2015 production, nails best-in-show honors as the horrifically vain Princess Pamela, who searches in vain for a suitable swain, then belatedly figures out that she's a lesbian (GASP!). Everyone else in the cast takes care of business, and if you really, really like the Go-Go's, you might possibly find the results tolerable. I doubt there are still enough Go-Go's fans out there to make "Head Over Heels" a hit, but stranger things have happened on Broadway. Roma Torre, NY1: The convoluted story revolves around a king and queen, their two daughters and a shepherd love interest. Their lives do indeed turn head over heels as King Bacilius visits the Oracle Pythio who portends a series of calamitous events. It gets awfully complicated and audiences may tune out before it's all resolved. But I'm not even sure it matters because if you're willing to suspend your disbelief, under Michael Mayer's spirited direction, there's so much good-natured talent on the stage you may just give in to the frivolity. David Cote, Village Voice: Head Over Heels does go retro, but waaay retro, to achieve something rarer and wonderfully strange. They've found the Venn overlap among "We Got the Beat," LGBTQ awakening, and Elizabethan allegory on humane statecraft. Marilyn Stasio, Variety: It's really hard to laugh when somebody's holding a gun to your head. That's the way this Go-Go's feels in "Head Over Heels," an over-written, over-designed, and generally overdone production directed by Michael Mayer. From the sets and costumes to the performance style, the basic principle seems to be: Less is boring and more is never enough. Thanks, no doubt, to the Oracle of Delphi (played here by the impishly funny Peppermint), it's a miracle that at least some of the wit in Jeff Whitty's original book gets through. Johnny Oleksinski, The New York Post: The new musical "Head Over Heels," which opened Thursday on Broadway, takes the songs of '80s American girl group the Go-Go's, plops them in a British story from the 16th century and adds a bunch of modern, self-referential jokes. It's an idea that's so crazy, it just might work! It doesn't. This indulgent show is wackier than it is fun, and elicits more "huh?" than "ha". Worse, it treats the catchy pop music like a side of spinach. Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: There are surprises galore on the stage of the Hudson Theatre, where Head Over Heels has landed following two West Coast tryouts. Surprises in tone: The source material is an Elizabethan comedy by one of the Bard's lesser contemporaries, set to songs by an all-female 1980s rock group called The Go-Go's. Surprises in gender, which are pretty much the point of the evening. Surprises in production, with director Michael Mayer and his team altogether littering the stage with jokes and gags and gimmicks which grow, like a snowball, until just about everything gets a laugh. The most surprising thing, perhaps, is that after all is said and done, this purposely low-brow, far-from-subtle propaganda statement for sexual equality turns out to be a wittily wicked romp. Melissa Rose Bernardo, New York Stage Review: Here's the sad truth: If you've been walking around the house humming "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," it's probably because you heard it on a Progressive insurance commercial. Even I, a card-carrying Belinda Carlisle fan (and someone who has performed that song more than once at karaoke), will admit that her oeuvre-meaning, of course, the music of her '80s all-female pop-punk band the Go-Go's-wasn't exactly ripe for the Broadway treatment. Sara Holdren, Vulture: But the universe of Head Over Heels is a forgiving one, a world where love of all stripes truly does conquer all, and despite doing some real violence before the play is through, Basilius is shown mercy. "Under my supervision," says Gynecia to her chastened husband, "I predict a gentler man will over time evolve." She's not just talking about Basilius: In Head Over Heels, the future isn't female per se, but it's definitely not male either. Where gender, love, and governance are concerned, the future is free - free of the old definitions, the old order, the old beat. The straight and narrow path is a big fat dead end, and if the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend toward justice, Head Over Heels joyously insists that it keep bending.<doc-sep>Joan Marcus Pythio (Peppermint) and their serpentine dancers in Head Over Heels. When Pythio emerges onstage in Head Over Heels, the audience bursts into applause. That’s partly to celebrate the Broadway debut of Peppermint, the one-time RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, and partly because there’s never been an Oracle of Delphi quite like Pythio. This prophesier is fierce, instantly captivating, and surrounded by serpentine dancers. When King Basilius (Jeremy Kushnier) and his servant, Dametas (Tom Alan Robbins), wonder aloud if the Oracle is a man or a woman, Pythio asks a question that turns out to be central to Head Over Heels: “How is gender germane to the discussion?” “Things need to be one thing or another,” Basilius demands. “My qualities transcend your rude opinion!” the Oracle counters. “Pythio is a nonbinary plural.” Traditionally speaking, the Oracle of Delphi — also known as the Pythia — was strictly female. But there’s very little that’s traditional about Head Over Heels. The musical is based (loosely) on Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th-century classic, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Jeff Whitty, who won the Tony Award for Avenue Q, and James Magruder are responsible for the book, while the score comprises songs by the Go-Go’s. Yes, Head Over Heels is a jukebox musical, a genre derided for its use of established songs, but the show as a whole turns out to be one of Broadway’s most original offerings in years. The transformation of the Oracle into a nonbinary character played by a black, trans woman — the first trans actor to originate a principal role on Broadway — is a radical step forward for mainstream theater. While Broadway has a reputation for being inclusive, queer representation has largely been limited to gay, white men, with some notable exceptions like 2015’s Tony winner for Best Musical Fun Home. Trans and nonbinary representation in particular has been severely limited: Shows like La Cage aux Folles and Kinky Boots, though certainly progressive at the time, depict cis men doing drag. Head Over Heels is a rarity in its portrayal of the full spectrum of gender identity and in its casting of a trans actor (and drag queen) to play a nonbinary role. Joan Marcus The cast of Head Over Heels. The plot, as in Arcadia, follows Basilius’s attempt to thwart the Oracle’s dire prophecy — his daughters, Philoclea (Alexandra Socha) and Pamela (Bonnie Milligan), will fall prey to unsuitable suitors, one a liar and the other not a man; he and his wife, Gynecia (Rachel York), will (somehow) commit adultery with each other; and his crown will be usurped by a worthier king. And then things take a turn for the queer. Philoclea finds herself drawn to the Amazonian warrior Cleophila, who turns out to be the shepherd Musidorus (Andrew Durand) in disguise. And Pamela discovers that she never wanted a man at all, as she and her handmaid Mopsa (Taylor Iman Jones) declare their love for each other. At every turn, Head Over Heels makes the most subversive choices, queering a classic 16th-century text to delightful effect. Mopsa takes a quick trip to Lesbos (yes, really), where she turns “Vacation” into a new lesbian anthem. And Musidorus’s cross-dressing, rather than just being played for laughs, inspires a full embrace of his feminine side. Head Over Heels is earnestly committed to an accurate depiction of sexual and gender fluidity — Pythio’s pronouns are treated with respect, even spurring some updated Go-Go’s lyrics — while also being exceptionally silly. It is thoughtful but never didactic, a show that cares as much about getting representation right as it does about making sure the audience is having a great time. And with a bevy of Go-Go’s tunes — seriously, every song is a bop — the latter is all but guaranteed. In fact, part of what makes Head Over Heels so impressive is that it doesn’t need to be nearly as innovative and clever as it is. The jukebox musical has a reputation for being lazy, and for good reason: Most of these shows rest on the audience’s familiarity with an artist’s catalog, which means they don’t feel the need to provide much beyond that. These musicals are mostly biographical, offering a highly sanitized version of the subject’s life, as in Summer, which glosses over Donna Summer’s late-in-life anti-gay attitudes. When they do feature original stories, like the dreadful Escape to Margaritaville, the plots are flimsy and transparent excuses to shove as many hits into two hours as possible. You go to a jukebox musical to hear (and hopefully not sing along to) the songs you know and love. More often than not, it’s not any deeper than that. Joan Marcus Bonnie Milligan as Pamela.<doc-sep>
Head Over Heels (Musical) type Stage genre Musical The feeling of watching Cher kiss Meryl Streep on the lips has been captured on stage in the form of Head Over Heels. Opening Thursday at the Hudson Theatre, the show is a technicolor category unto itself: an Elizabethan-era romp set to the songs of The Go-Go’s. Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th-century prose poem The Arcadia, loosely adapted here as a jukebox musical, makes an unexpected match with the giddy hits of the history-making ‘80s girl group, but in this story, the most unexpected match is usually right. The premise of the musical, if it even needs one, is this: Somewhere in a surreal stretch of the Tudor period, Arcadia is turned upside down when an oracle (RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, ethereal and commanding) foresees that the community will lose its beat, a sort of nourishing hand jive of the soul that serves as a paper-thin link to opening number “We Got the Beat.” It needs no further definition. The town’s stodgy king (Jeremy Kushnier) responds to the prophecy by dragging his family and his subjects on a journey meant to protect them, only to inadvertently expose them all to the unstoppable force of progress. Sexual hijinks ensue, in iambic pentameter. The plot is so slight that it’s surprising when actual consequences come calling in Act 2, and that’s a compliment to Act 1: Frothy romantic entanglements are all the substance this comedy needs. Head Over Heels is packed with characters questioning their sexuality, a shepherd (Andrew Durand) donning drag to get the girl, and a powerful, gender-fluid soothsayer addressed by they/them pronouns. It can be a little distracting when the dialogue tries to double as LGBTQ 101, but it still feels like a divine post-Pride Month miracle that this show’s “Vision of Nowness” is not just to incorporate one or two LGBTQ characters but to foreground a whole host of people of varying identities. (Of note: Peppermint is the first openly trans woman to originate a principal role in a Broadway musical.) Even Spencer Liff’s kicky choreography, which may just be the glue holding the whole operation together, keeps pairing off ensemble members into same-sex couples. I was reminded of the new Queer Eye: The original series fought for tolerance, the intro tells us, but the reboot is fighting for acceptance. In Head Over Heels, there is a step beyond acceptance, and it’s the beat. Directed by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), the joyful production dials the camp to 11; this is a show with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, except when it’s in someone else’s mouth. The best physical comedy falls to Durand, whose shepherd-in-disguise Musidorus finds himself the object of everyone’s affection. In one bit, Durand flits in delirious pantomime between playing the masculine suitor and the feminine seductress, poster child of a sexual awakening no one expected, least of all the shepherd himself. Everyone in the charismatic cast gets (and milks) their moment in the spotlight, but Rachel York in particular makes for a delicious queen, and Bonnie Milligan quite literally chews scenery as Pamela, the king’s vain eldest daughter. Pamela also happens to be the bigger of the two siblings, and early dialogue veers too close to making a joke out of her self-esteem as she labels her sweet, delicate sister Philoclea (Alexandra Socha) the “plain” one. But as the script settles into a groove and Pamela discovers herself, her beauty becomes a fact universally accepted. In keeping with the script’s tendency to break the fourth wall, Julian Crouch’s set design relies on traditional flats, giving the show a charming pop-up quality. Some musical numbers are staged like elevated vaudeville performances: “Vacation” places runaway handmaiden Mopsa (a lovely Taylor Iman Jones) on what might as well be a 1950s postcard of an island, and Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” makes naughty use of shadows behind a simple sheet. The result is a production that feels as freewheeling and handcrafted as a local outdoor Shakespeare festival, which fits; the first version of the show debuted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015. Head Over Heels’ journey to Broadway has been rocky: Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) created the original book for the Oregon production but resigned after clashing with Mayer. His script has since been significantly altered by James Magruder.