This year, the Will Farrell movie Holmes & Watson won the 39th Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture. A tongue-in-cheek roasting of bad cinema, this anti-Oscars event began in 1981. The horrendous flop Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly was nominated. Can’t Stop the Music starring Bruce Jenner and The Village People won the first Razzie. Oddly, Douglas Carter Beane (The Little Dog Laughed, The Nance) decided to adapt Xanadu for the Broadway stage. Even more oddly, the show was a critical success and a Tony nominee for Best Musical in 2008.
Having missed that original production, I finally had a chance to catch up with this oddity while visiting Colorado. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts has scheduled Xanadu for a six month run (!) in its cabaret room, the Garner Galleria Theatre. Table service is available for drinks and snacks. Let’s just agree that a relaxed environment coupled with a nice cocktail is probably the ideal way to see this musical.
While Xanadu the movie was a box office failure, the soundtrack was a huge commercial success with the song “Magic” topping the charts. The plot is a mash up of the original movie and the mythological fantasy film Clash of the Titans. Sonny is an artist who is dissatisfied with his sidewalk mural of the Greek Muses. He decides to kill himself. Clio, the youngest and perkiest Muse, convinces her sisters to travel to Venice Beach to inspire Sonny. She uses roller skates, leg warmers and an Australian accent as catalysts for motivational coaching. Sonny decides he can combine all the arts plus “something athletic” into one spectacular entertainment: a roller disco.
The show’s original six sisters have been trimmed down to three for this version but still include one male in drag. The hunky Sonny wears short shorts and a tank top. Jokes are squarely aimed at theater geeks: “so grand, so earnest, so preposterous…. it’s like Andrew Lloyd Webber.” In this jukebox of average tunes, “Whenever You’re Away From Me” was a performance standout. Now it’s time to take your temperature. Semi-interested or “hell no, we won’t go”?
This production has been directed and choreographed by Joel Farrell. Xanadu needs to be breezy, efficient and silly to work. Overall I would say the mission has been accomplished. Lauren Shealy (Clio) and Marco Robinson (Sonny) had nice chemistry and solid roller skating skills. It’s Ms. Shealy’s show to carry and she gave good goddess. Aaron Vega also did a nice turn in multiple roles including theater owner Danny, Zeus and a Muse.
Early on during the performance I saw there was a fire alarm followed by a theater evacuation. The poor art gallery next door was flooding from their overhead sprinklers. After the fire department all clear, we returned to our seats (and our drinks). Xanadu takes a while to showcase its minimal charms but most of this audience came back. Did they desperately need to hear “Suddenly the wheels are in motion/And I, I’m ready to sail any ocean”? Doubtful but it does have a catchy hook.
Is this lightweight concoction really a Broadway caliber musical? Hard to say. I can confidently state, however, that placing this campy ninety minute revue into a cabaret is exactly the format this show needs to continue to live on. The oft-repeated ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) lyric from a song in Xanadu sums it up best: “Oh, what a strange magic.”