So much attention is paid to Tony Awards-season Broadway shows that feature celebrities, or that derive from existing pop-culture properties, that one approaches a show like Boop! The Musical (Broadhurst Theatre, booking to Sept 28), with a quizzical raise of the eyebrow.
The cartoon character of Betty Boop may be iconic—and she may have a diehard fan-base—but she is not big in the now. Not only that; the show features none of the name-recognition star-power of its award-vying neighbors. Jasmine Amy Rogers, in an impressively assured Broadway debut, is playing Betty.
Yet you will likely have more fun at Boop! than in many other theaters this spring; this is an old-fashioned stage-frolic filled show, with big songs and bigger dancing, including roof-raising numbers overseen by director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, with the company tap-dancing and high-kicking in perfect rows of synchronized movement. If you desire sheer escapism—and I can’t imagine why, the world being just peachy right now—this show is for you. It goes on far too long (at least half an hour could be cut), but—just wait for the finale!—you even forgive it that.
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