CATCO’s bought the beat.
Tuneful and joyful if a bit foolish, “Head Over Heels” combines the Go-Go’s songbook with Elizabethan-era romantic comedy.
CATCO’s fizzy manufacturing, which opened Saturday night time to applause and whoops of laughter within the Riffe Middle, offers Larger Columbus our first likelihood to savor this latest Broadway musical in regards to the many permutations of need.
“We Acquired the Beat,” “Get Up and Go,” “Our Lips are Sealed,” “Mad About You” and “Stunning” are just some of the catchy songs belted out with raucous conviction.
Director Leda Hoffmann helps the performers floor their farcical hijinks with rapturous feelings as Arcadia’s royal household and servants enterprise into the woods to avoid wasting their society’s conventional “beat.”
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‘Head Over Heels’ preview:Love and gender expression come alive in CATCO’s musical comedy ‘Head Over Heels’
The eight-member forged blends right into a seamless ensemble bringing to totally fashionable life a interval fable that on Broadway generated buzz for its non-binary forged and characters.
CATCO’s whimsical model, prompt for mature audiences due to sexuality and transient violence, extends the musical’s circle of affection with casting that embraces folks of various physique sorts, races and genders. The blithe theme: Everybody can discover love and happiness — if we simply have the braveness to be who we’re.
Kendra Lynn Lucas makes use of her powerhouse vocals and imposing presence to make queen Gynecia good and robust.
As conniving King Basilius, Luke Bovenizer provides a pompous and hilarious edge harking back to a younger Tim Curry.
Jordan Shafer exults within the strutting entitlement and passionate self-discovery of Pamela, the eldest princess (the function originated on Broadway by Ohio State College graduate Bonnie Milligan).
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Light big Brian C. Grey finds empathetic masculinity and tenderness in a double function: Musidorus, the poor shepherd in love with youthful princess Philoclea (candy Summit J Starr), and the Amazon warrior he disguises himself as to accompany her.
Sha-Lemar Davis provides hints of larger self-awareness as Mopsa, Pamela’s devoted servant, whereas Liam Cronin tasks comedian anxiousness as viceroy Dametas.
Caleb Mikayla Goins-Robinson exudes regal grace as Pythio, the oracle of Delphi whose unusual prophecies set the plot in movement. Casting the native drag queen in such an aptly glitzy function, for her CATCO debut, was an impressed contact that pays off.
Go-Go’s music provides an upbeat enchantment
Backed by wealthy orchestrations of the three-member onstage band, the forged glories within the Go-Go’s peppy harmonies.
The forged revels within the wordplay, innuendo and slapstick whereas discovering laughs even in some silences.
Lori Wallace’s voguing choreography is easy however efficient in including quirky accents to the royal promenade.
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The fashionable manufacturing enhances its fractured-fairy-tale environment with Que Jones’ sparkly interval costumes, Marty Wooster’s burnished lighting and Dan Grey’s elegant classical surroundings.
Flamboyant however surprisingly intimate, the performances benefit from Studio One’s transformation into an extended thrust stage, with cabaret tables on either side and different theatergoers seated on the now-not-so-far finish.
The 1600s narrative, Nineteen Eighties tunes and stylish 2020s gender politics don’t at all times mesh simply on this jukebox musical. But, given its hybrid layers, it really works surprisingly effectively.
Will the oracle’s prophecies be fulfilled? What secrets and techniques can be revealed? Who falls in love with whom? My lips are sealed.
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At a look
CATCO will current “Head Over Heels” at 2 p.m. March 20, March 27 and April 3; 7:30 p.m. March 24 and March 31; and eight p.m. March 25-26 and April 1-2 within the Riffe Middle’s Studio One, 77 S. Excessive St. Masks and proof of vaccination or damaging PCR COVID take a look at are required. Tickets value $45, or $20 (scholar rush). (614-469-0939, www.cbusarts.com)