Susan Granger’s review of “Ghost The Musical” (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre 2011-2012 season)
Paul Kieve is perhaps the most unknown, underrated participant in this screen-to-stage adaptation of “Ghost,” the 1990 tear-jerker which paired Demi Moore with the late Patrick Swayze as the star-crossed lovers.
According to his Playbill bio, illusionist Paul Kieve created original magical effects for more than 100 West End, Broadway and international productions, including “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Witches of Eastwick,” “The Invisible Man,” etc., along with tutoring Daniel Radcliffe in “Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.” And it’s his expertise, along with that of high-tech multi-media designer Rob Howell and video/projection creator Jon Driscoll that are most memorable about this disappointing Broadway musical.
There’s the familiar plot about an ebullient Brooklyn artist, Mollie Jensen (Caissie Levy), who is madly in love with Sam Wheat (Richard Fleeschman), a shy, reticent, guitar-strumming banker, who tends to say “Ditto” whenever Molly declares she loves him. After Sam is accidentally shot and killed in what seems like a street robbery, he realizes Mollie is in grave danger. Miraculously, he makes spiritual contact with Oda Mae Brown (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a sassy, Gospel-singing psychic who reluctantly agrees to act as an intermediary, warning Mollie not to trust Sam’s scheming partner/best-friend Carl (Bryce Pinkham), who hired Willie Lopez (Michael Balderrama), the thug who botched up the mugging.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin teams up on the forgettable music and bland, repetitious lyrics with Glen Ballard and Dave Stewart of the ‘80s synth-pop duo Eurythmics. While director Matthew Warchus does the best he can to breathe some emotional life into this relentlessly ephemeral, ectoplasmic romance, including re-imagining the clay-play pottery scene, it’s to no avail, even though Caissie Levy and Richard Fleeschman recreate the roles they originated on-stage in London last year.
As a result, what was once a sensual, sentimental ‘weeper’ has been sculpted into a special-effects extravaganza, complete with digital dancers. If you want to experience “Ghost” again, rent the movie – for which Whoopi Goldberg won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award as the psychic.