CLEVELAND, Ohio – In “Bring It On,” currently going aerial at the Beck Center for the Arts, Campbell (Kailey Boyle), a perky white cheerleader from an upscale school, is sent to inner city Jackson High (thanks to the evils of redistricting), where the kids listen to hip-hop and don’t do perky.
It draws its narrative from the Bette Davis classic wherein Eve Harrington, a younger, hungrier up-and-comer, cozies up to her idol, Broadway legend Margo Channing, only to bury a knife in her back. (In this case, the craven cutie is 15-year-old pom-pom-waving Eva, played by Abby DeWitte, so let’s subtitle this version “All About Eva.”)
Eva, once Campbell’s protege, takes over her champion cheer squad, her goopy boyfriend (Jonathan Young) and her mean-girl posse of Kylar (MacKenzie Wright) and Skylar (Victoria Pippo, reveling in being a self-described “be-yotch”). Eva has even co-opted Campbell’s hearts-absolutely-everywhere bedroom decor (the humanity).
The show, a light, sweet pop culture parable about squeezing the juice out of the lemons life hands you, has a feminist twist: When girls work together rather than against each other, great things can happen.
Loosely based on the 2000 movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union, the claim to fame of “Bring It On: The Musical” these days is that it features the music and lyrics of “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (in collaboration with Amanda Green and Tom Kitt).
The production only really comes alive when we leave the sanitized environs of Campbell’s old school and hear Miranda’s thrilling voice in the thumping rhythms and clever, loquacious lyrics echoing through the halls of Jackson High.
Choreographer Martin Cespedes gives us the pelvic-centered, bum-shuddering moves you’d expect, but also taps a sinuous street dancer’s grace, particularly in “Do Your Own Thing,” Campbell’s introduction to her classmates – more colorful, in every way, than those she’s grown up with.
Campbell awkwardly tries to make her way among this cooler, tougher crowd. These include a trio of fly girls – leader Danielle (Shayla Brielle) and sidekicks Nautica (Joy Del Valle) and La Cienega, a transgender teen played with teeth- sucking aplomb by the chameleonic Michael Canada. Sporting a teased-out, purple-tinged ‘fro and a fierce attitude, Canada’s La Cienega has every right to steal the show.
Shayla Brielle (Danielle) and Kailey Boyle (Campbell) are held aloft in ‘Bring It On: The Musical’ at the Beck.Roger Mastroianni
After realizing Eva is behind all of her transfer troubles, Campbell hatches a scheme to build a squad with Danielle et al. to take on Eva and her old teammates. She goes all Machiavelli to do it and when her lies and manipulations are found out just before nationals, she must convince her new friends to trust her again, but the clock is ticking. . .
Cheer choreographer Mary Sheridan captures the true athleticism of the sport by giving the cast lots of acrobatic moves – flying V’s and towering basket tosses and hamstring-tearing splits – and the talented ensemble (a collection of music theater majors from Baldwin Wallace University) makes it look easy.
When characters aren’t vaulting or doing somersaults, the energy of the piece wanes. Will Branstetter’s direction of all those bodies onstage is often too static (for example, featured singers step forward out of a line, do their thing, then step back). The sparse, boxy set by Jordan Janota, designed to make room for all those high-flying stunts, presents a thorny blocking challenge; it’s better suited to acrobatics than arias.
Still, Branstetter draws joyful performances from his young actors, among them Shelby Griswold as Bridget, the unpopular chubby girl who is bused to the urban school along with Campbell. She learns to love her curves under the you go girl tutelage of Nautica and La Cienega in the triumphant “It Ain’t No Thing.”
Bridget sings:
I’ve got a big butt,
well so what?
It’s good as any other,
And I think of you as sisters
from another mother!
Yeah, I got some junk up in my
trunk (back it on up!).
It ain’t no thing, yeah!
These and other lyrics by Miranda and co-writer Green are delivered with Miranda’s trademark lightning speed, but because of the antiquated (or just plain awful) sound system in the Beck’s Mackey Theater, too many of them are impossible to decipher. (The two portable speakers propped onstage from “Wayne’s World’s” basement didn’t help.)
As usual at the Beck, high notes are piercing and low notes nonexistent, robbing the production of its true playful power – and the performers of their due. How is one to truly judge their work when half of what is coming out of their mouths never reaches the ears?
If the theater is going to continue to produce mainstage musicals, and its fruitful collaboration with the Baldwin Wallace University music theater program, it should respect its artists enough to provide them with the basic technical support they need to shine.
REVIEW
Bring It On
What: A Beck Center for the Arts production of the 2012 Broadway musical. Libretto by Jeff Whitty. Music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lyrics by Amanda Green and Miranda. Inspired by the motion picture “Bring It On” written by Jessica Bendinger. Choreography by Martin Cespedes. Directed by Will Brandstetter.
Where: The Beck’s Mackey Theater, 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood.
When: Through Sunday, Feb. 26.
Tickets: $12-$13. Available at the box office, by calling 216-521-2540, ext. 10, and beckcenter.org.
Approximate running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission.
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