Tootsie made its Northern California premiere at San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts and will be there now through April 24. With a Tony-winning book by Robert Horn, and with music and lyrics by the clever David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Tootsie garnered eleven Tony nominations, two wins and much acclaim, as well as pointed critique centered on transmisogyny. There are other problems as well.
Based on the 1982 hit movie of the same name, Tootsie the musical moves from the soap opera, show-within-a-show premise to a musical-within-a-musical, keeping of course, the central conceit of a man dressing up as a woman. And therein lies the main problem for a show set in the present day (or any time, really). The comedy relies almost completely on the tired (and dangerous) trope of making fun of a man in a dress. Much like the Polish jokes prevalent in the early 80s, derogatory humor is just not, well, humorous.
Michael Dorsey (Drew Becker) is a straight, white cisgender actor who argues with directors, questions scripts and demands changes. (What actor does that?) Small wonder that he can't get work in New York and no surprise when his long-suffering agent (Steve Brustien shines) lets him go. Oh, and he just turned 40.
Enter his roommate and longtime best friend, Jeff (the spot-on hilarious Jared David Michael Grant), and fellow actor Sandy, his neurotic ex-girlfriend (the equally funny Payton Reilly). As the trio celebrate Michael's birthday, Sandy shares her fears about an upcoming audition for a new musical called "Juliet's Curse" while Jeff tries to get Michael to see that he needs to change or he's done for as an actor.
So, instead of cleaning up his act, Michael decides to dress in drag and audition for "Juliet's Curse," undercutting Sandy in the process. He auditions under the name Dorothy Michael but, true to form, he's combative with the director (Adam du Plessis). Does this mean he's thrown out? No, his hutzpah as a woman, which made him a pariah as a man, wins him the part of the nurse in Juliet's Curse.
After landing the role, he attends his first rehearsal as Dorothy Michaels and promptly decides that the show stinks. So, he convinces with the show's star Julie, the actress playing Juliet (Ashley Alexandra), to make the show all about Juliet's nurse. Again, as a man his audacity made him unemployable, but as a woman it works? And why would Julie, the star of the show, agree to step down from the lead? And why would the writers of the show allow it? None of it adds up.
But this isn't real life, it is a musical. In a zany, farcical show, the audience is required to suspend belief to an even larger degree than other shows but this goes beyond that mark. Add to that, the transmisogyny that others speak to better than I and you have a show that brings more harm than laughs.
During the vaudeville years the phrase "But will it play in Peoria?" was popularized, meaning will it be successful in middle America. Of course, Tootsie will "play in Peoria." The question is, should it?
TOOTSIE
https://broadwaysanjose.com/
Now thru April 24, 2022
Book by Robert Horn
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek
Based on the story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart
and the Columbia Pictures motion picture produced by Punch Productions and starring Dustin Hoffman
Broadway Choreography by Denis Jones
Directed by Dave Solomon
Original Broadway Direction by Scott Ellis
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