Becoming Britney (FringeNYC)
Isn’t it time for a snarky musical about the ripe-for-the-picking hard-to-top pop slop that is the public train wreck called Britney
Spears? The media-created, media-fueled media frenzy brain-dead celebrity culture is skewered pretty well in Becoming Britney. And this pretend Britney (a plucky, high energy dumb-can-be-sweet performance by multi-tasker Molly Bell) is more fun to be around than the real thing. (Bell also co-wrote the piece with director Daya Curley and was one the co-choreographers with Mandy Bell and Lisa Navarro.)
The story is set in group therapy (the leader cheerily but firmly welcomes the participants to it "whether it was court-ordered or not"). The shaved-head, empty-headed Britney is the new members. Exercises and role-playing and such work into flashbacks to tell her story. She’s told to sing her emotions and recollections.
Why? Because it’s a musical, she’s told in the wink-at-the-genre and admit-the-artifice style. In an inside reference to typical musical theatre writing style, she’s told she needs an "I want" song, so she sings about how she has to find one. Some numbers ape pop music/bubble gum styles, sometimes pre-recorded to get that synthetic feel, and feature athletic and precision choreography-impressive and well drilled. When soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake and soon-to-be-ex-husband Kevin enter, we parody hip-hop. Keith Pinto plays both men nimbly and with flair.
It’s mostly on-target, but some targets get only a nod that might have been given real time or a musical number: why not hear from her kids instead of just having them represented by Cabbage Patch Dolls? What? No song about the no-panties fashion statement?! Where’s the big divorce/child custody number? Only one line about the disastrous Video Music Awards zombie-like "comeback" performance? And no reprise of a having-a-baby song for her 17-year-old sister’s pregnancy? (A guess would be the bulk of the show was written before the latest events, but they still feel like missed opportunities -- it’s just so hard to keep up with the newest embarrassments.
Though it starts to peter out and feel repetitive, the end isn’t the payoff/topper it needs, the Britney brouhahas have plenty of ha-ha in them. A couple of favorite moments, when Brit is asked what success means to her, she replies, "Well, to quote Wikipedia...." And then there’s the rhymed mantra related to staying thin at all costs when food tempts: "Resist the urge, it’s OK to purge." No need to resist the urge to join in the snarkery - this show is a guilty pleasure.
Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street - The Bleecker Street Theatre
www.becomingbritney.com
Tue 12 @ 7:45
Fri 15 @ 9:45
Tue 19 @ 5:15
Sat 23 @ 2:30
Tix ($15)/info: www.FringeNYC.org
