A lot of people whine that Broadway doesn’t know how to make entertaining musicals anymore.
Happily, it turns out that Broadway still knows how to make ’em. With its catchy pop score, charming cast, zippy staging and wickedly funny book, “Lysistrata Jones” is one of the season’s tastiest pieces of candy.
Sadly, it’s also one of the most underbuzzed.
Maybe it’s because the show doesn’t boast marquee names, unless you count book writer Douglas Carter Beane — the wit behind the similarly minded “Xanadu” and “Sister Act.”
Or maybe it’s because the marketing campaign is terrible.
If you’ve heard about “Lysistrata Jones” at all, chances are you’re still fuzzy about its subject. The TV commercial advertises a musical but doesn’t feature any songs or dancing, while a cheerleader natters on about ancient Greece and women’s mysterious powers. Huh?
Those familiar with Aristophanes’ 411 BC comedy “Lysistrata” will have an inkling of the plot: In both stories, women determined to get their way withhold sexual favors from their men.
In the ancient days, they tried to prevent war. At Athens University, circa now, the cheerleaders, led by the perky title character (Patti Murin), won’t let the losing basketball team score in the bedroom until they do on the court.
Or, as the girls sing: “No more givin’ it up till you give up givin’ it up.”
When the Transport Group first staged the show in June, it was in an actual West Village gymnasium, for about 100 people at a time. The move to a larger venue dilutes the production’s goofy appeal, but there’s still plenty left.
Landing halfway between “High School Musical” and the Lonely Island — the “Saturday Night Live” trio responsible for “Lazy Sunday” and “D – – k in a Box” — the musical is a breezy hoot expertly delivered by the dedicated, energized ensemble.
It’s hard to single out anybody onstage, though the imperial Liz Mikel deserves a shout-out for her dual turn as narrator Hetaira and the madam of the local brothel, the Eros Motor Lodge.
That inn of iniquity aside, “Lysistrata Jones” is less risqué than it is peppy and good-hearted.
Beane has things to say about not trusting appearances, and the importance of passionate engagement versus fear of commitment — whether to an ideal or to other people. But he never speechifies, preferring to lob snappy one-liners. Lysistrata, for instance, got her name because her parents “were on the fringe of society. They were theater majors.”
Composer Lewis Flinn keeps pace with appropriately fluffy songs that mix light R&B, bubblegum pop and loose hip-hop influences. The last are echoed in the dance moves cooked up by choreographer/director Dan Knechtges, who sets a fleet-footed pace overall.
So what’s “Lysistrata Jones” about, then? Girls, boys, love, basketball — and a classical good time.