Photos – K. Nowosad
Broadway’s West 44th Street hosts two new rock-oriented shows as Head Over Heels and Gettin’ the Band Back Together play. These two shows are playing door apart on on the 100 block of West 44th Street between 7th and 6th Avenues. Both are in recently renovated theaters where the work shines beautifully through. Of course both shows are uniquely different from each other with their story lines. But the biggest difference is that one is a jukebox musical and one has an original music score.
Photo – K. Nowosad
The jukebox musical is Head Over Heels. Playing at the Hudson Theatre, Head Over Heels uses the music of the fabulous all girl band The Go-Go’s. The score incorporates more than 15 of the group’s most popular songs including The storyline is basically an Elizabethan farce about a royal family trying to prevent an oracle’s prediction of doom . The show is the first Broadway musical to feature an openly transgender performer in an original role written for the stage ― “RuPaul’s Drag Race” runner-up Peppermint. It also features Andrew Durand, Taylor Iman Jones, Jeremy Kushnier, Bonnie Milligan, Tom Alan Robbins, Alexandra Socha, Rachel York
Photo – K. Nowosad
Gettin’ the Band Back Together plays at the beautiful Belasco Theatre. This newly opened Broadway show is in previews. I enjoyed the show when it played at George Street Playhouse and I reviewed it on this site. I went to see it this week and enjoyed it again. The Broadway version updates and enhances some of the features of the show from the run at George Street. The show keeps its good- natured humor and the laughs come often. This is a good show for the entire family to see. It is also a show with original music.
The show stars MaryLou Henner in the role of the hip mom. Her son is played by Mitchell Jarvis. His band mates include Jay Klaitz, Manu Narayan, Paul Whitty, and Sawyer Nunes. Brandon Williams plays the bad guy in town and Kelli Barrett plays the high school girlfriend left behind.
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