It takes more than a holy spirit and revivalist zeal to make “Tammy Faye” divinely worthy of musical theater.
You’ll need a creative team that knows what they want for their show: creepy jeers, stinging accusations, bitter melodrama, witty satire, revealing biography? The new Broadway musical “Tammy Faye” touches on all of these perspectives, but without any sense of confidence, coherence or purpose. It’s as messy as Tammy’s mascara.
This misguided West End import, directed by Rupert Gould and sung by Elton John, begins the story of a tearful televangelist with a sinister sense of outrageousness. Tammy (Katie Braben), wearing a white gown, is shown rising into the heavenly light to the sound of a heavenly chorus. But she hasn’t met her maker. She’s seeing a proctologist. A medical scan there revealed colon cancer. The diagnosis causes Tammy to have flashbacks to her life, a mix of faith, love, and guilt.
At a megachurch meeting led by Billy Graham (Mark Evans, suitably charismatic), Tammy meets her future husband, Jim Bakker (Christian Ball), an itinerant Christian puppeteer. His approach to preaching is similar to the evangelical patriarchy led by Jerry Falwell (Michael Cerveris), Pat Robertson (Andy Taylor), Jimmy Swaggart (Ian Lassiter), and Marvin Gorman (Max Gordon).・This caused consternation among the evangelical patriarchy, including Moore.
But thanks to the positive thinking that Tammy encourages in Jim, the duo replaces these “doom and gloom” and create a loving, fun, and wonderful ministry. They eventually convince Ted Turner (Taylor again) to start the PTL (Praise the Lord) satellite network, where they become Biblical stars.
Millions of followers are instantly drawn to Tammy’s emotional personality as well as her non-traditional, upbeat side of cooking, fashion, and erectile dysfunction solutions. As his religious rivals come under threat from the Bakker family’s large satellite congregation, Falwell sees an opportunity to expand his power far beyond his ministry.
On the surface, Tammy Faye Bakker would seem like a natural to be brought into the world of musical theater, where strong-willed, extraordinary women are gloriously revered.
However, a closer look reveals a problematic personality as a spiritual figure with an ostentatious lifestyle, drug addiction, and a willful disregard for her husband’s fraudulent activities that exploit the poor. .
In author James Graham’s comprehensive but thin storytelling, Tammy’s flaws are softened, glossed over, or even made fun of. It’s hard to trust a show without important characters to balance out the bitterness, explore psychology, and provide perspective. At least “Evita” had Che.
The second act brings about the inevitable fall from grace, but it’s not much fun compared to the climb. Tammy’s empathetic embrace of a gay pastor with AIDS on a talk show begins the collapse of the empire, along with her husband’s sexual encounters with church secretary Jessica Hahn (Alanna Pollard) and the development of Christian housing. Jim’s shady plans are exposed. / Theme Park, Heritage USA.
Similar to the documentary and Michael Showalter’s film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Graham (Ink, This House) envisions the show as part of the larger national conservative movement. Trying to put it in context, this is the White House that Falwell is “using to put God in society.” ” But the musical never moves beyond its obvious impressions of religious hypocrisy, greed, ego, and pandering to politicians.
Some of the lift the show receives are the light-hearted cameos by other powerful figures in politics, media, and religion: Archbishop of Canterbury Ronald Reagan (Lassiter) (also Lassiter), LDS Church President Thomas S. Munson ( Moore), Ted Turner (Taylor), and Pope John Paul II (Taylor). Curiously, their personalities and perspectives have never been musicalized.
Braven, who created the role in London, does her best to navigate a wide range of tonal swings, always giving Tammy heart, soul and big voice. But she wasn’t helped by John’s score, which had lyrics written by Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Sears. The songs are nondescript and groundless, filled with generic and instantly forgettable power ballads, Christian pop tunes, and revivalist floor-treaders.
Tony Award winner Ball works hard to bring life to life as Tammy’s troubled husband, but Graham gives him little to work with other than puppet voices for humor and meltdowns for drama. Not yet. Cerveris’ rich baritone gives Falwell a deep chill, but he too appears with little purpose other than to sneer and look ominous.
Katrina Lindsay’s costumes give off an 80’s vibe with lots of pastels and pinks. Bunny Christie’s set is supported by a towering wall of television screens, but other than that, it’s empty.
Yet another drama this season that ends in the afterlife, with Tammy finally seeing the light of a God who can accept and perhaps forgive her all-too-dead sins. Your audience may be less charitable.
