If ever a musical was tied to an era Bye Bye Birdie is it. In it's day this show [first produced in 1960] was a clever and sometimes funny satire of the teenage obsession with rock and roll and the Elvis Presley craze. Maybe there is a way to make this musical seem fresh and new,but if there is director choreographer Robert Longbottom has not figured it out.
This show still has it's very plesant Charles Strouse/ Lee adams score [their first for Broadway] but Michael Stewart's book now coughs desperately and sometimes quits altogether, and what was once refreshingly current now just seems old hat.
As already mentioned Mr. Longbottom hasn't figured out how to solve the shows problems. He has staged it like a Radio City Christmas show and his dance numbers are strictly Las Vegas kitch.
The casting isn't very happy either. John Stamos and Gina Gershon are no more than fair as the leads and Bill Irwin mugs it up as a father of one of the teenagers. The rest of the cast overplays to the hilt which is not the best way to approach this material, and the sets by Andrew Jackness are very hi tech and not in the period. More 2009 then 1960.
Maybe Bye Bye Birdie could still work, but not in this misguided and flat production. It should have been better.
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Interesting revue, Jeff.
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