'Scandalous' finds joy in a false prophet's story
- Musical about the fallen evangelist features book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford
- USA TODAY review: * * * stars out of four
- It's now playing at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre
NEW YORK — Larger-than-life figures, real and fictional, have long inspired musical theater: Jesus Christ. Don Quixote. Eva Peron. Aimee Semple McPherson.
If the last name doesn't ring a bell, McPherson was a charismatic evangelist who captured national attention back in the 1920s — first with theatrical sermons that drew thousands to her Los Angeles church, and spawned a pioneering radio program; then in a sensational legal case that found McPherson, a divorcee, accused of staging her own kidnapping in order to sneak away with her married lover.
Biographers, novelists, filmmakers and songwriters have studied and drawn on McPherson's winding tale through the years. Now Kathie Lee Gifford has made her the subject of a new Broadway musical, Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson (* * * out of four).
Wait, don't sneer. Gifford's libretto and lyrics for the show, which opened Thursday at the Neil Simon Theatre, aren't likely to reinvent the veteran chat-show hostess (and sometime singer and songwriter) as the Oscar Hammerstein II of her generation. There are awkward and banal word choices, including some cringe-inducing rhymes. In her second number, Why Can't I?, a teenage Aimee lashes out at her rigid mother with this doozy: "Why am I the fated daughter of such pompous piety? Why must I be forced to swallow such religiosity?"
But Scandalous — which features a fine cast led by stage veteran Carolee Carmello and vigorously directed by David Armstrong — has many lighter, brighter moments, as well as something rarer in contemporary musicals: the courage of its sincerity. Gifford and co-composers David Pomeranz and David Friedman have crafted a two-hour-plus journey that neither wallows in its self-importance nor looks down its nose at the quaint folks it chronicles.
Instead, Scandalous's creators invite us to laugh and sigh with, and marvel at, this entertaining cast of characters assembled by history — with some creative license, of course. Gifford doesn't explore potential conflicts between 's McPherson's conservative beliefs (which aren't addressed in detail) and proto-feminist stance; and her pill-popping, powerful-but-vulnerable Aimee has aspects of a clichéd Hollywood heroine. But the part is drawn with warmth and humor, and the siren-voiced Carmello relays both qualities with irresistible dynamism.
As Aimee's loyal convert/employee/confidante Emmo Jo, Roz Ryan lends wry distinction to the stock role of the sassy, wise African-American cohort. Other actors juggle parts, with the excellent George Hearn doubling as Aimee's patient dad and a sexist rival preacher, and Edward Watts playing both Aimee's adored first husband (who dies from malaria) and a caddish performer who tries to worm his way into her heart.
Watts' second character turns up in a series of lavish, vibrant, funny Biblical skits that send up McPherson's church shtick without mocking the faith behind it, or the faithful. That's not an easy balance to strike, and Scandalous deserves credit for its mix of unabashed razzle-dazzle, gentle irreverence and genuine heart.