“Broads! The Musical” directed by Jules Aaron and choreographed by Kay Cole hits the boards running with more than a dozen new musical numbers and doesn’t stop until the flashy “It Ain’t Over” finale. Presented at the El Portal Forum Theatre by Route 17 Productions the musical celebrates life no matter your age.
For years, tall, striking, platinum blonde Louise (Leslie Easterbrook) has sung and shimmied with her senior gal-pals in their annual variety show at the Millennium Manor Retirement Village.
Together with the fading Puerto Rican beauty Nilda (Ivonne Coll), and the two Jewish sisters, diminutive, uptight Elaine (June Gable) and plump, emotional Myra (Barbara Niles), they have become the Dazzling Dames of the South Florida retirement community.
They know each other, love each other, depend on each other … they just don’t know how much. It takes a shocking announcement, presented in the middle of their club act, to stir the pot and reveal the choice morsels of friendship lurking at the bottom.
An old proverb states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” but timing is everything, and Louise’s timing is way off. Her news throws the “Broads” for a loop and their performance suffers. They blame Louise for ruining everything, and they don’t just mean the show.
How these dissimilar women work things out is the heartwarming story woven in and through the wonderful music in this glitzy new musical.
Fit and sexy this quartet of talented actresses doesn’t look like they belong in any retirement village. In their opening number (“Beautiful Broads”), wearing flashy wraps dripping with sequins and rhinestones, they high-step, strut and kick
their way across the audience-level thrust stage with youthful energy. (We should all age so well!)
Their rib-tickling “A Day at Millennium Manor” extols the activities available to senior residents, including water aerobics, shuffleboard, bingo, and tournament poker. Later in “Soup to Nuts,” the gals sing about the “early-bird soup du jour for $6.99" and dance waiter-fashion with fake-food filled dinner plates.
The story dialogue as well as the musical numbers are performed both publically on the clubhouse "stage" and in the intimacy of the women's backstage dressing room.
The “Mi Marido” duet by Easterbrook and Coll (in a gold lame Carmen Miranda costume) jokes about a “hot” relationship with “my dear husband” and is performed for the Millennium Manor audience, while the quietly nostalgic, “Just Yesterday We Were Girls” duet sung by Gable and Niles plays out in their dressing room
Easterbrook in a slinky dress and purple boa flaunts her stuff in “Lift It Up,” encouraging her friends to not be nervous ‘going under the knife’ and to give Botox and Collagen a try.
Gable’s confronting “I Say It like It Is” reveals the anger and disappointment (and suppressed grief) she feels after her friend’s announcement. But once it’s out in the open, she’s free to join the others in the kiss-and-make-up “Without You, Ladies.”
For a lush musical review and tender story, performed without intermission, “Broads! The Musical” is just the ticket.
The show runs Thursdays – Sundays through April 4, at the El Portal Forum Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood (NoHo Arts District), CA 91601. General admission is $35.00. For tickets or information call (818) 508-4200 or go to www.broadsthemusical.com
