DO you have fond memories of your senior prom? If so, you’ll probably greatly enjoy “The Mar velous Wonderettes.” If, on the other hand, the experience was more pressurized than fun, you have some idea of what it’s like to sit through the forced cutesiness of this jukebox musical featuring dozens of classic pop tunes from the ’50s and ’60s.
Written and directed by Roger Bean, the show, which began life at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, is the latest of a long line of high-concept musical revues trafficking in pop music nostalgia.
The first half, set in 1958, has the Marvelous Wonderettes – Missy (Farah Alvin), Betty Jean (Beth Malone), Suzy (Bets Malone) and Cindy Lou (Victoria Matlock) – providing the entertainment at their high school senior prom. In addition to delivering group and solo renditions of such numbers as “Mister Sandman,” “Stupid Cupid” and “Teacher’s Pet,” they perform their cheerleading routine for the school team, the Chipmunks, and they vie both for the affections of various boys and for the chance to become prom queen. (The audience is given the chance to vote on the latter, but don’t bother, as the election is as rigged as the show.)
Act 2 is set during the inevitable 10-year reunion, giving the older but not much wiser Wonderettes the opportunity both to reveal their personal situations (one is pregnant, another marries the teacher on whom she had a longtime crush) and sing such ’60s hits as “Son of a Preacher Man,” “It’s My Party” and “Rescue Me.”
The physical elements of the staging are all spot-on, such as the suitably pouffy dresses, garish beehive hairdos and amusingly awkward choreography. And the performers put over their numbers in effective if generic fashion (the standout is Alvin, who provides some truly impressive R&B style wailing on such songs as “Mr. Lee”).
But the clichéd characterizations and strained attempts at comedy ultimately don’t add much to the music, which is woven into the narrative in the thinnest of fashion. And listening to some three dozen numbers over the course of two hours is like overdosing on sweets.
THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES
Westside Theatre, 407 W. 43rd St.; 212-239-6200.