Bittergirl: The Musical
At the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until July 29, 2017
Tickets from $29 at artsclub.com or 604-687-1644
“We need to talk.” Four little words that almost always mean there’s trouble in paradise. For Canadian writers/actors Annabel Fitzsimmons, Alison Lawrence and Mary Francis Moore, it meant they were about to be dumped.
What better way to get over a broken heart than to get together with other “dumpees,” write a play, then a book, then turn the play and the book into a smash hit musical? Could revenge be sweeter than selling out theatres from London to New York and Toronto? Don’t just get even, get rich.
Director/choreographer Valerie Easton casts three of Vancouver’s most talented, most energetic (imagine singing “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” while lifting weights and doing planks) and best female voices in town: Cailin Stadnyk, Lauren Bowler and Katrina Reynolds.
And who said women aren’t funny? These three had the opening night audiences howling with laughter.
Obviously, breakup isn’t a laugh riot and Stadnyk gives the show one of its rare moments of poignancy when her character explains to her child that “Daddy” isn’t happy and wouldn’t it be better to see Daddy “sometimes” – when he’s happy, than “all the time” – when he’s unhappy?
But Bittergirl is not there to be poignant and the moment passes quickly.
The show uses almost two-dozen “found” songs from the 1960s and ’70s including “And Then He Kissed Me,” “Mama Said,” “Love Hurts” and “Be My Baby,” backed by an all-girl, smoking hot band (Madeleine Elkins, Linda Kidder, Diane Lines and Monica Sumulong) elevated upstage.
The songs – in the style of Mama Mia! – slot into the story where they make sense. Director/choreographer Easton keeps the lead characters – known only as A, B and C – moving and grooving. It’s a major workout.
The show starts with all three in little black dresses but, wondering if being more fit might have kept the relationship sizzling, they hit the gym, tucking their black dresses into black spandex workout shorts and working up a sweat.
Stadnyk’s comedic chops provide funny stuff throughout but she’s especially hilarious in this scene as C, who, breathless, lacks coordination and can’t keep up. What she does with a resistance band looks more like pleasuring herself than working out.
Josh Epstein plays D, the “dumper” to all three leads, and he delivers the lamest lines women over the course of history have heard a million times. There are groans from the audience as he says, “I love you. I’m just not in love with you,” or, “You’ll always be my best friend” (yeah, right), or dimwittedly: “I dunno, I just lost my magic.”
The women, predictably, ask themselves – before digging into the bag of chips and knocking back booze – if being thinner might have saved the relationship, or wearing better underwear, or looking more like their sister. Their friends can’t understand it, and toss out vacuous platitudes like, “Everything happens for a reason,” and, “You were the perfect couple.”
Epstein, as always, is hilarious and lifts an already rocking show higher with his dynamite voice and sexy little moves. He’s the heartbreaker you love to hate but just can’t because he’s so darned cute.
Carmen Alatorre does costumes from the little black dress through spandex, spa robes and prison garb to sparkle plenty. Ted Roberts provides a blue cityscape set, lit by Robert Sondergaard.
While most of Bittergirl: The Musical feels real, it strikes an awkward chord when the women, briefly, turn against each other.
But it’s short-lived; their relationship gets back on track and the show ends on a big, big note when C tells them to “suck in your stomach. Stand up straight. And make your arms look thin”.
A loud and proud medley finale includes “I Will Survive.” No doubt about it.
For more reviews go to joledingham.ca
