The sixth show on Broadway this year to be adapted from a movie, Tootsie arrives loaded with classic comedy potential. The 1982 Dustin Hoffman film was nominated for ten Academy Awards. This story is about a man impersonating a woman in order to book an acting gig. Along the way, he learns something about women and himself. That message seems perfectly timed for the #metoo movement. As a Broadway musical, the results are mixed.
On the very positive side, Robert Horn’s book is hilarious. There are so many zingers to savor throughout the entire show. When Michael dresses like a woman, he looks like “Faye Dunaway as a gym coach.” The setting is the present day and the updates are inspired. “My phone doesn’t recognize my face I.D. unless I’m crying.” Word play is also employed when a character says “a plague on both your houses.” Dental plague is the errant pronunciation.
A solid cast keeps the fun moving along. As Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels, Santino Fontana (Cinderella, Act One, Billy Eliot) was funny and warmly winning. I found the Michael scenes more entertaining that the Dorothy ones. La Cage Aux Folles and other female impersonation entertainments were occasional novelties forty years ago. Today, men dressing as women seem mainstream. There are more than ten seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race on television. Dorothy may be charming – even empowering – but just putting on a shiny red dress and smiling is fairly basic stuff. (That it mimics the movie and happens twice is too predictable.)
Surrounding Mr. Fontana is a cadre of merry makers. Michael’s roommate is the character who sees the lunacy and relishes the absurdity. Andy Grotelueschen’s performance is a wonderful combination of deadpan line deliveries and comedic pauses. Ex-girlfriend Sandy Lester is played by Sarah Stiles (Hand to God). Hilarious as the neurotic actress who competes with Dorothy for a role, the energy on stage was at full wattage in her every scene. She has the (by far) best number in the show, “What’s Gonna Happen.” Admittedly a very close cousin (doppelganger?) from another David Yazbek musical (Women On the Verge of a Major Breakdown), the song killed for its swift and clever lyrics.
Reg Rogers was devilishly sleazy as the lecherous director Ron Carlisle. As the producer, Julie Halston nailed every laugh written for her all-knowing, been around-the-block and back again character. In the role of an unbelievably dumb reality star with washboard abs and wannabe actor Max Van Horn, John Behlmann (Significant Other) hit a home run with his physical comedy and brilliant buffoonery.
Why then is Tootsie just a fair musical? David Yazbek’s score did not seem to match the show it was in. There are a lot of songs, many of which are one or two character emotional numbers with titles like “Who Are You?” and “I Won’t Let You Down.” In nearly every case, the songs are tuneful but largely uninteresting. They slow the very funny story down considerably. In addition, a few performers noticeably and repeatedly struggled to hit the notes as written.
Director Scott Ellis’ staging is fairly old school. The few ensemble musical numbers and the choreography by Denis Jones were not additive to the fun. Making average jokes about imitating Fosse’s signature movements is not particularly fresh especially when repeated multiple times.
The film Tootsie had Michael/Dorothy hired to be on a soap opera. In this musical, the acting job was understandably changed to one in a Broadway play. Juliet’s Nurse is the sequel to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Mr. Horn’s memorable book does wring some laughs out of this scenario. The ending of this show, however, cannot compete with the zaniness of the original.
All things considered, perhaps Tootsie should have been constructed as a play with some music. The pacing would have been much tighter. This musical can be recommended for plenty of laughs and a very good cast. The two dozen songs, however, will remind you that your girdle is too tight and your dogs are barking from those ill-fitting high heels.