BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical is now in previews at the Broadhurst Theater in New York with an opening date of April 5. I admit to a certain curiosity about it, especially about the meeting in which someone said something like, "You know what Broadway is dying to see? A musical about Betty Boop!" I love the old Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoons, especially when administered in small doses but I'm just wondering why they thought there was a lot of name recognition there.
Or maybe they didn't. Maybe the whole point of it is just to do a jazzy, colorful musical and Betty could anchor it and represent a carefree era where the world had the energy of one of her cartoons. Advance word would suggest the show is at the very least jazzy and colorful and those aren't bad things for a musical to be. So we shall see what we shall see. Here's a link to a page that tracks reviews, which are so far of the outta-town tryouts. And here's a 48-second sampler of the show which is, as you'll see, jazzy and colorful…