In theory, a musical
based on the 1990 film “Ghost” might not seem like such a terrible idea. After
23 years, it remains a popular movie, filled with scenes that have become
iconic in the time since its release (it’s impossible to hear “Unchained
Melody” without it immediately conjuring up images of Patrick Swayze and Demi
Moore engaging in some heavy petting around a pottery wheel). Its story is
filled with the sort of big emotions and over-the-top sentimentality that would
seem to lend themselves to the format of a big-budget musical — a medium that’s all about big emotions. In
practice, “Ghost The Musical” turns out to be as misguided a production as
I’ve ever seen.
After a year-long run in
London’s West End back in 2011, “Ghost The Musical” debuted on Broadway in
March of 2012, only to close a short six months later. After such inauspicious
beginnings, you’d think the show would be freed to ascend to Broadway heaven,
but instead it has been left to wander the country, caught in the limbo of its
national tour, like some dancing and singing apparition from the beyond.
The story is exactly the
same as the film, focusing on Sam and Molly, an insipidly happy couple prone to
making out with each other in front of their friends and talking endlessly about
how happy they are together. They do occasionally fight, mostly about how he
can’t say “I love you,” choosing instead to respond with a simple “ditto.” He
works as an investment banker, meaning that we get a production number
featuring black-suited bankers singing about life in the fast lane of New York
City, wanting “more and more and more” like they’ve escaped from a production
of “Wall Street: The Musical.” She makes pottery, which means she’s lucky she
has him so they can afford their enormous Brooklyn apartment.
Then Sam and Molly start
singing about how they’re sure to have “months and weeks and years together,”
which, of course, is immediately followed by Sam being killed in a seemingly
random mugging. His spirit remains earthbound, stuck between worlds, allowing
him to stick around long enough to discover that his murder wasn’t a random act
at all. With Molly in danger, he must find a way to protect his beloved from
harm and figure out why he was killed in the first place. The key to his mission
turns out to be Oda Mae Brown, a phony storefront
psychic who, much to her surprise, turns out not to be such a fraud after all.
She’s able to hear Sam, and after much convincing, begrudgingly agrees to help
him warn Molly.
The basic problem with “Ghost
The Musical” is that, while the original film is schmaltzy and manipulative, it
was skillfully made. It told a story that took the vast ideas of the
supernatural and life after death and applied them to a (relatively) intimate,
small-scale story. Translating that to the stage, where everything has to be
blown up and made bigger in order to register all the way to the back of the house, renders the story nearly unbearably sappy.
The theatrical adaptation
was written by the film’s screenwriter,Bruce Joel Rubin, and maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe
a writer with more stage experience would have known what changes were
necessary to make the transition a success. On top of that, extravagant effects have been ladled on to the
production, including a set made up almost entirely of giant sliding LED
screens, strobe lights, fog machines, and stage illusions choreographed by
professional illusionist Paul Kieve. To be fair, the
effects Kieve created are often impressive; the
light-up sets, only occasionally so. The sliding screens are used effectively
during a fight sequence set aboard a subway car, but most other times they’re a
distraction, notably with the bizarre decision to show dancing figures that mirror
the live dancers onstage. Maybe this was done to make the production numbers
seem bigger than they are, but it inadvertently highlights how sloppy the
ensemble’s dancing tended to be.
Neither Steven Grant
Douglas or Katie Postotnik make much of an impression as Sam and Molly,
though Postotnik isn’t helped by the fact that her
character is forced to sing nothing but bland, tuneless ballads. Carla R.
Stewart fares better as Oda Mae Brown, but she has
the benefit of getting all the best lines and liveliest musical numbers.
However, in the most unimaginative choice possible, her character is introduced
with gospel number, which is indicative of the show’s troubling tendency toward
racial caricature. Robby Haltiwanger
barely registers as Sam’s friend Carl, and (spoiler alert) he’s a decidedly nonthreatening
presence once he’s called upon to play the villain.
I’ve barely mentioned
the music, credited to Dave Stewart, of The Eurythmics
(!), and Glen Ballard, and that’s because I barely remember any of it. Repeated
renditions of “Unchained Melody” only serve to underscore how unmemorable all
of the other songs are. The show is a misfire, forgettable nearly top to
bottom. At one point, before he dies, Molly tells Sam that he has to “let go of
the expected, the traditional, the everyday.” Granted,
in the context of the scene she’s referring to owning a “funky” red
refrigerator. But it’s advice that the creators of
“Ghost The Musical” would have been wise to heed themselves.
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2013.
Amen Brother!