Susan Granger’s review of “Women on the Verge” (Belasco Theater 2010)
Based on Pedro Almodovar’s internationally acclaimed film, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988), this new Broadway musical by composer/lyricist David Yazbek and book writer Jeffrey Lane (who collaborated on “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”) and director Bartlett Sher (who helmed the Lincoln Center revival of “South Pacific”) – with some assistance from Almodovar – is, basically, a screwball farce, set in late 20th century Madrid and dominated by hysterical Spanish women deranged by love.
It begins in a state of high anxiety with Pepa (Sherie Rene Scott), an actress specializing in voice-overs, trying to track down her duplicitous lover, Ivan (Brian Stokes Mitchell), who dumped her via a message on her answering machine. Meanwhile, Ivan’s furious, estranged wife Lucia (Patti LuPone) is also looking for him after being incarcerated for the past 19 years in a mental institution. So are their geeky grown son Carlos (“American Idol” runner-up Justin Guarini) and his demanding fiancée Marisa (Nikka Graff Lanzarone). Laura Benanti is sensational as the ditsy fashion model Candela who’s inadvertently hooked up with a terrorist (Luis Salgado), plus there’s De’Adre Aziza as Lucia’s lawyer, Mary Beth Pell as the landlady and Danny Burstein as the ubiquitous taxi driver. After the trashing of several telephones, a surreal burning bed and innumerable Valiums, somehow things seem to work out – differing from the conclusion of Amodovar’s movie.
Heavily influenced by its Latino roots, Yazbek’s string-driven score intersperses brassy numbers with gentle ballads. Yet it’s the garish production design that sticks in the memory: Michael Yeargan’s sets in bold primary colors, Catherine Zuber’s pastel candy-colored costumes and Sven Ortel’s evocative projections showing Madrid architecture and other images of the Mediterranean capital.
Bottom line: “Women on the Verge” is flashy and splashy but far too frenetic.