Review: CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, Starring Rachel Bloom & Santino Fontana, is Subversive Musical Joy

Theatre fans have had a tenuous relationship with television musicals over the past few years. Whether it was the casual dismissal of GLEE after its strong first season, the hate-watching of SMASH, or the mixed-reactions to THE SOUND OF MUSIC and PETER PAN LIVE!, theatre fans have set a pretty high bar for programs that look to bring musical programming from stage to screen. With THE WIZ LIVE! and GREASE LIVE! still months away, a new musical TV show premieres tonight starring Tony-nominee Santino Fontana and Obie Award-winner Donna Lynne Champlin. CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, the joyfully kooky comedy that debuts on The CW tonight at 8:00pm ET, was created by Upright Citizen's Brigade member Rachel Bloom, who also stars as the titular crazy character.

CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND's appeal will be far more niche than the other recent attempts at musical serialization, however, with that in mind, it might have a better chance at success. Bloom has been making hilarious music videos for years like "Nobody Will Watch the F*cking TONY AWARDS with Me" and "Historically Accurate Disney Princess Song" amongst many others. The videos are often bawdy and laugh-out-loud hysterical, and when CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND was announced as a half-hour musical comedy for Showtime, the premium channel seemed like a perfect fit for Bloom's specific brand of comedy. However, after the pilot was shot, Showtime decided not to pick up the show to series, only for their sister network, The CW, to swoop in and order an hour-long version a few months later.

With this behind-the-scenes drama in mind, it is no surprise that the premiere episode that airs tonight is a little uneven, as it was actually intended to be the first two episodes of the Showtime run. Since the show will have to change dramatically from what Bloom and her co-creator, Aline Brosh McKenna, envisioned for Showtime, it would be smart for fans to give it a few weeks to figure out exactly what it wants to be. However, based on the pilot episode, there is a lot for musical theatre and comedy lovers to be optimistic about.

Bloom plays successful real estate attorney Rebecca Bunch, who has a complicated relationship her own sanity, hence the show's name. Just as she is offered a highly desirable promotion, Rebecca spots her summer camp boyfriend, Josh Chan, from a decade before on the streets of New York. After learning that Josh, played by Vincent Rodriguez III (who was last seen on the First National Tour of Roundabout's ANYTHING GOES) is moving back to his hometown of West Covina, California, Bunch turns down the promotion and abruptly moves west.

While Rebecca tries to convince herself that she didn't pass up a highly-paying, prestigious job to move across the country to a small town that's "two hours from the beach, four hours in traffic" for a guy that barely knows she's alive, that's actually exactly what she did.

To make the move a bit more legitimate, Bunch gets a job at a West Covina law firm, but still cyber-stalks Josh. While meeting her new co-workers, head paralegal Paula (played by Champlin) becomes suspicious as to why a lawyer as successful as Rebecca would leave New York for West Covina. While she insists that she just wanted to get out of the rat-race and "chillax" out west, Rebecca follows Josh to a bar where she meets Greg, played by Fontana.

What bodes well for the show is that it still maintains some of the subversive humor that Bloom is known for, and that would have undoubtedly been a cornerstone of a Showtime run. While GLEE premiered with a comedic edge that quickly dulled as the show became more interested in bubble-gum iTunes sales. Because CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND is more than a tad raunchy, and thrives when its characters are at their craziest, it has all of the makings of a cult-hit that defies what mainstream audiences think of as musical fare.

One of the big numbers of the pilot is "The Sexy Getting Ready Song," which lampoons the self-inflicted torture that women put themselves through to look "naturally beautiful." Bloom writes all of the show's songs, and unlike GLEE or SMASH, CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND has no built-in premise that allows characters busting into song make sense. On one hand, that makes the show proudly a musical in the conventional Broadway sense, but it also means that it is completely embracing the genre's inherent craziness. There are no gimmicks like a GLEE club, a Broadway show, or a random karaoke bar, so the musical numbers can literally be whatever Rebecca's unstable mind imagines.

Despite Rebecca's craziness, Bloom makes for an incredibly charming and likeable lead. Whether CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND becomes a hit or not, this is likely just the beginning of a great career for its creator.

In addition to the infectiously catchy songs, the pilot has a number of really funny visual jokes and musical theatre references, and sets up for a series that is unlike anything you can find anywhere else. Paired with JANE THE VIRGIN, the best "dramedy" on TV, this Monday woman-centric comedy block could position The CW to movie beyond supernatural teen angst and superhero dramas.

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Check out the show's trailer:

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Did you take a crazy trip to West Covina? Let me know what you thought of the CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND premiere in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with my "366 in 366" articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter. Also, don't forget to follow @BWWTVWorld on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for all of the latest TV news, reviews, and recaps.

Photo Credit: Eddy Chen | The CW

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