After Turns in ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Legally Blonde,’ Singer and Actress Laura Bell Bundy Stars in Off-Broadway’s ‘Romy & Michele: The Musical’

Laura Bell Bundy has repeatedly gained attention in musical theater adaptations of film comedies by playing pretty young women whom we underestimate at our own peril. After making her Broadway debut as mean girl Amber von Tussle in “Hairspray,” the singer and actress scored a leading role and a Tony Award nomination as Elle Woods, the Harvard Law School-educated heroine of “Legally Blonde.”Ms. Bundy’s latest project finds her off-Broadway, but playing a not dissimilar role in another high-profile musical comedy lifted from the screen: In “Romy & Michele: The Musical,” she is cast as Romy White, a part introduced by Mira Sorvino in 1997’s “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion.” Her longtime bestie, Michele Weinberger, portrayed in the movie by Lisa Kudrow, is played here by Kara Lindsay, another stage veteran, whose credits overlap with Ms. Bundy’s in including another not-so-dumb blonde-haired character: Glinda in “Wicked.”Mind you, neither Romy nor Michele cuts as impressive a figure as that good witch, or as Elle, for that matter. The librettist, Robin Schiff, wrote the screenplay for “High School Reunion,” and also drew from her play “Ladies Room,” which informed the film. I haven’t seen that play, but this new musical’s book is faithful to the movie, especially in presenting a pair of women who triumph not because they’re clever or even ambitious, but because, darn it, they deserve happiness. If anything, under Kristin Hanggi’s breathless direction, Romy and Michele come across as even sillier and, frankly, more pathetic than they did in that unabashedly goofy screen hit. Ten years after graduating high school at Tucson, Arizona, the gals live together at Los Angeles, eating junk food, watching “Pretty Woman” over and over — to make fun of it, they insist — and trying to get into nightclubs.Michele is unemployed, and too lazy, she admits, to devote any of her free time to, say, cleaning their apartment, which she describes as a “pig pen.” Romy works as a cashier at a Jaguar dealership but appears similarly unmotivated: “The only exercise we get is getting up to pee,” she chirps in one of the bubbly but mostly witless songs provided by Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay, who worked together previously on “Orange is the New Black,” the duly celebrated TV series.Je’Shaun Jackson in ‘Romy & Michele: The Musical.’ Valerie TerranovaLike the film, the musical casts its leading actresses as teenage versions of their characters in flashbacks that illustrate their stature in Sagebrush High School’s social hierarchy: way below the “A-Group,” represented by a pack of cheerleaders whose alpha female, Christie Masters — think Regina George in “Mean Girls” or Heather Chandler in “Heathers,” two other screen favorites that have been musicalized for the stage — bullies them mercilessly.Reluctant to revisit this chapter in their lives, the older Romy and Michele devise a plan to pass themselves off at the reunion as successful businesswomen; Romy decides, specifically, to take credit for the invention of Post-Its, setting the stage for a deception that will create a temporary conflict between the two and, naturally, have a disastrous outcome that will bring them back together and allow them to emerge victorious in spite of everything. Mses. Lindsay and Bundy both bring admirable energy and comedic chops to their roles. The latter works especially hard to recapture the Valley Girl-inspired speech patterns that Ms. Sorvino gave Romy, though her exaggerated vowels, even more than the film star’s, end up suggesting a caricature of a Great Lake accent. The supporting players prove equally game. Lauren Zakrin’s Christie is aggressively perky, and just as nasty, and Jordan Kai Burnett lends dry humor to the part of Heather Mooney, a goth girl who ranks even lower in the social pecking order than Romy or Michele. Toby, an overeager school organizer whom even Heather bullies, played by Camryn Manheim in the movie, is presented here as a gay male, and given zest and sweetness in Je’Shaun Jackson’s performance. Jason Lyons’s lighting design makes dominant use of neon hues, as do Tina McCartney’s costumes; the show’s final number, notably, is titled “Changing the World (One Outfit at a Time).” Alas, bright colors and positive vibes alone don’t make a compelling show, and “Romy & Michele: The Musical” is best recommended to the most ardent fans of the source material — if they don’t want to just save the money and stream the original.

After Turns in ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Legally Blonde,’ Singer and Actress Laura Bell Bundy Stars in Off-Broadway’s ‘Romy & Michele: The Musical’

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