We take a look at what is being said about the Broadway run of Elton John and Jake Shears’ musical.
Variety: “Brayben, who created the role in London, does her best to navigate the wide swings of tone, always giving Tammy heart, soul and a big voice. But she is not helped by John’s score, with lyrics by Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears. The songs are undistinguished and unrooted in character, filled with generic and immediately forgettable power ballads, Christian pop tunes and revivalist floor stompers.”
New York Post: “Goold has the actors break the fourth wall a bunch throughout. Actors make entrances through the center aisle, and the audience is annoyingly encouraged to applaud over and over during their overplayed TV tapings.”
Deadline: “With a plot as thin as the paper of a Bible page, Tammy Faye‘s only hope for salvation would have been some kooky singing and dancing, and yet the show falls short here too. The John-Shears songs are generally a bland blend of pop and gospel, without the goofy fun of the former or rousing emotion of the latter. Like Lynne Page’s uninvolving choreography, the songs generally can’t decide whether they want to mimic the musical numbers of ’80s variety shows or mock them, and so does neither particularly well.”
Theatrely.com: “The world of Tammy Faye is perfectly suited for a musical. Hell, it might require a day-length marathon production, or epic opera, to capture the grand passion play at her story’s heart: challenges of faith, greed, abjection, glory, betrayal and redemption. The history is fascinating, and this show is not altogether unenjoyable, but Tammy Faye’s creators simply haven’t cracked it. It wants to be a camp celebration, cynical dirge, and rousing revival meeting, but sinks Tammy Faye into the destructive whirlpool of her surrounding men in the same way it expects us to believe Bakker herself was innocently caught in their tides. Worse, it denies her of her joy, her core lifesaver – and the one most necessary to make a musical flock rise.”
Theater Mania: “You won’t have a bad time at Tammy Faye, but you probably won’t walk away with a new favorite musical, either. It’s still a lovely tribute to the woman who interviewed an AIDS patient on television at a time when the Reagan administration would barely acknowledge the epidemic, and did so in front of an evangelical audience, with no fear that her sincere expression of Christian love unto the least of her brethren would result in her excommunication, and who doubtlessly helped save countless lives and family relationships because she opened the door to another way.”
Showbiz411.com: “Still, it’s an entertaining show full of great sounds and performers. It’s worth our time. And Sir Elton remains an international treasure!”
New York Theatre Guide: “Tammy Faye is at its best when Brayben, reprising her Olivier Award-winning performance from the show’s London premiere, is on stage alone. “Open Hands,” a tune about reaching out, soars. Tammy Faye Bakker’s gift was connecting. One wishes the musical did more of that.”
Time Out: “The trouble with this conception is that Tammy Faye herself is almost the least garish thing about it. Brayben won an Olivier Award for this role, but there’s a fundamental Englishness about her that she can’t quite shake; she’s solid and sympathetic, and sings extremely well, but she doesn’t access Tammy’s rawness and almost childlike ebullience—the personal charisma at the center of her brand of Charismatic Christianity. And the musical doesn’t help her get there.”
New York Theater.me: “This odd, attempted moment of camp – at such cross-purposes to the earnest gay preacher scenes — is mercifully brief, but I think it offers a clue to why “Tammy Faye” doesn’t land. The show is apparently trying to combine affectionate satire with pointed commentary, like “The Book of Mormon” or “Hairspray.” But unlike those superior shows, the creative team doesn’t seem to understand the worlds they are trying to satirize, nor care enough to express a cogent point of view.”
The Wrap.com: “What’s downright risible is Lynne Page’s choreography for all the staged TV commercials, which are staged exactly like the other big production numbers.”
Entertainment Weekly: “the true star of Tammy Faye is its staging, makeup, and production design. Costume designer Katrina Lindsay nails Tammy’s looks throughout her many eras, which range from simple pink dresses to rainbow ensembles to a Violet Chachki-worthy dress reveal, while wig, hair, and makeup designer Luc Verschueren keeps her hair teased to the high heavens and mascara a-flowing. Tony and Olivier award-winner Bunny Christie also absolutely crushes it with her simple, yet effective stage design, bringing forth a Hollywood Squares-esque platform that not only serves as the backdrop to Tammy’s show, but also allows its cast to deliver lines from in its windows or broadcast footage onto its many screens.”
To find out more about the production visit: https://tammyfayebway.com/