BWW Reviews: Talented Broads Sing BROADS! THE MUSICAL

I loved the four gals playing the Broads - all talented - but the show needs a major overhaul. Too many jokes are tired old cliches - and singing about side effects from medications? Audiences do not find that entertaining as many experience these very problems on a daily basis. No one was laughing the night I attended, because most of it wasn't funny! And death? Who wants to be reminded that funerals are like weddings, but at least at weddings you can smell your own flowers? Also not funny, guys! Especially for the majority of the audience - over 65!

I recommend the ladies though. June Gable is wonderfully funny and immensely versatile, as is Ivonne Coll as Nilda, a Carmen Miranda with a baritone voice. Barbara Niles has a lovely singing voice and what can one say about Leslie Easterbrook? Nip 'n tuck or not, she is still gorgeous to look at.

A couple of the tunes by Joe Symon are OK, but hardly memorable. If these ladies did a senior citizen version of "The Marvelous Wonderettes" with all old songs and more delicious sexual inuendos, then everybody would love it! When I saw The Full Monty, it was mostly the older ladies that were screaming at the male strippers, "Take it off!" They love sex. Look at The Golden Girls!
Why not keep the concept the same with a performance at the Millenium Manor in West Palm Beach, Florida, but make their concert 'Film Divas of the 30s and 40s'. What possibilities then arise for dynamite musical numbers and fun parody stuff! These 4 ladies deserve better material!!
Director Aaron and choreographer Kay Cole do a great job as always, and many of Shon LeBlanc's costumes are eye candy.

Joe Symon, keep your concept, but make changes, and Jennie Fahn, rewrite with fresh, funnier jokes! Go see The Palm Springs Follies and get a taste of what most old broads would like to be!

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Broads! the musical
music & lyrics by Joe Symon; book by Jennie Fahn
directed by Jules Aaron
El Portal Forum Theatre in NoHo
Through April 4

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