‘Beaches’ Washes Up on Broadway With Limited Wind Beneath Its Wings

If you’re planning to see “Beaches: A New Musical” because you’re a fan of a certain chick flick starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, you may want to first read the fine print on the title page of the playbill, which doesn’t even mention that 1988 movie. The musical, which has opened at the Majestic Theatre, is rather based on the novel that inspired the film, by Iris Rainer Dart, who co-wrote its libretto with Thom Thomas and has provided lyrics to accompany music by Mike Stoller.As many classic pop fans will know, Mr. Stoller, with lyricist Jerry Leiber, wrote beloved hits for Elvis Presley and other noted artists in the 1950s and ‘60s, so it’s a little ironic that the song people will most expect to hear in this new Broadway production is “Wind Beneath My Wings,” a maudlin ballad, crafted by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley, that became a chart-topping single when Ms. Midler recorded it for the movie soundtrack.Rest assured, that cheesy anthem is included in the stage musical, which also retains the spirit and basic structure of the Hollywood tearjerker, albeit with some changes in details. The focus is still on a feisty Jewish girl with show business dreams, played by Ms. Midler on screen, and the more demure, blue-blooded gal with whom she forms an unlikely but enduring bond in childhood.The latter, Ms. Hershey’s character, was named Hillary in the film; in the musical, she’s Bertie White, as she was in Ms. Dart’s original book — a nickname for Roberta, just as her buddy, Cecelia Bloom, is called Cee Cee. While Hillary practiced law for a while, then married a man she thought she knew and loved, Bertie’s personal and career paths, at least in the musical — I haven’t read the novel — are thwarted from the start by a domineering mother: As played by Lael Van Keuren, Rose White is a caricature of a social-climbing snob, spitting out consonants that could cut through glass.Other new or revised twists inform Bertie’s and Cee Cee’s lives, and the tensions that develop between them, but like the characters played by Mses. Hershey and Midler, they end up maintaining their friendship through separation from lovers and Bertie’s becoming a mom and then, spoiler alert, falling terminally ill. Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett make Cee Cee and Bertie, respectively, appealing in complementary ways, and Mr. Stoller, now in his 90s, and Ms. Dart have given them a few theatrically compelling musical numbers.In fact, the show might have been less cloying than I had expected, if not for a prominent conceit: Throughout the show, the child actors who play our heroines as young girls periodically re-appear, sometimes briefly continuing their banter at the beginning of the show, which is hoarier and more vulgar than it was in the movie, especially on Little Cee Cee’s part. (Actresses playing the characters as teens also pop up, though less frequently.)I’m reluctant to criticize very young performers, who are especially vulnerable to overzealous guidance. Suffice it to say that directors Lonny Price and Matt Cowart seem to have encouraged the kids cast as Little Bertie and Little Cee Cee to mug tirelessly; their high-pitched, nasal chirping could also made it difficult to understand what they were saying, for which I wasn’t sure whether to be frustrated or grateful.Still, between its slightly rejiggered character arcs and its handful of engaging tunes, “Beaches: A New Musical” offers more than many screen-to-stage affairs, if not enough to sustain a run time of two and a half hours, including an intermission. I often find myself wondering why these adaptations of familiar material — jukebox shows as well — tend to stretch on as long as Shakespeare plays, or more original and substantial musicals. I suppose that, at least time-wise, fans will feel they’re getting their money’s worth.

‘Beaches’ Washes Up on Broadway With Limited Wind Beneath Its Wings

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