“Some of the best moments feature the cast’s voices melding with each other into a powerful, glowing sound.”
CATCO continues their 2021-22 season with one of the most discussed Broadway musicals of recent years, a shiny, bubbling production of Head Over Heels, setting songs by one of the great ‘80s rock bands, The Go-Go’s, to the structure of Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th century The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, conceived by Jeff Whitty and adapted by James Magruder, directed by Leda Hoffmann.
In the manner of foolish men everywhere, the king of Arcadia, Basilius (Luke Bovenizer), grows dissatisfied with how well things are going in his kingdom and his life, drags his wife Gynecia (Kendra Lynn Lucas), daughters Pamela (Jordan Shafer) and Philoclea (Summit Starr), his footman Dametas (Liam Cronin) and Dametas’ daughter/Pamela’s aide de camp Mopsa (Sha-Lemar Davis)) on a wild goose chase to pre-empt the distressing prophesy of the oracle Pythio (Caleb Mikayla Goins-Robinson). Philoclea’s childhood friend and rejected suitor Musidorius (Brian Gray) trails the family on this quest.
The plot doesn’t hold up to a lot of scrutiny, it’s a framework on which to hang those vibrant songs mostly written by the Go-Go’s themselves, with guitarist Jane Weidlin as the primary writer but featuring crucial writing from guitarist-keyboardist Charlotte Caffey, drummer Gina Schock, bassist Kathy Valentine, and singer Belinda Carlisle.
The breadth of the catalogue Head Over Heels reaches into stunned me; I felt like I was a fan and found myself looking up some of the songs at intermission I had no memory of, like reunion tracks “Beautiful” and “Good Girl.” For every moment that felt “This is a stretch,” like Musidorius teaching the family a dance to the band’s arrangement of The Capitols’ “Cool Jerk,” there were plenty that reinforced the labor of love at the heart of this musical; I grinned like an idiot whenever scenes were punctuated with the shuddering punk hook of “Skidmarks on my Heart.”
The Go-Go’s came out of the tightly knit LA punk scene of the late ‘70s, Belinda Carlisle was even in an early version of the beautiful and doomed band The Germs, and they’re a perfect example of artists – and people – who had to turn on that comfort of the scene, of a community, to fully grow into their own potential but also learn how to live with one another and help build the world they wanted to see. Head Over Heels alludes to that history– slyly winking at those stories of the band’s breakup and reformation with the egos and uncomfortable revelations of the family.
Hoffmann’s production does a great job not hitting us over the head with those parallels but keeping them in the audience’s mind. She and her cast also really dig into the rich material of those songs. The best Go-Go’s songs used romance as a lens for understanding the world and never shied away from the messiness, the frustrating mystery, and the melancholy that feeds the magic of the release.
Some of the best moments feature the cast’s voices melding with each other into a powerful, glowing sound. The act one closer “Our Lips Are Sealed,” the slow-burn anthem of the second act opening “Head Over Heels” and the climactic (pun partially intended) soaring ensemble version of the Carlisle solo hit “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” are towering examples of that approach. Some of the solo features also rise to those heights. Goins-Robinson tears the roof off with “Vision of Nowness” (I believe newly written for the show). Shafer’s take on early B-side “How Much More” was still ringing in my head the next day. Que Jones’ punchy, crisp music direction, and Dave Wallingford’s sound, highlight and frame the songs with a tight, swinging band featuring Ryan Jones on second keyboard, Drew Stedman on guitar, and Joel Steward on drums.
There’s a sense of delight as the production leans into the out-of-time mélange of elements: costumes designed by that recall the era the play was written, 16th century England, instead of the ancient Greece where it is set, sequined and skimpier outfits as the characters shed their more buttoned-up (but still graced with shimmer and shine) skins. Lorii Wallace’s choreography and Sarah Vargo’s fight choreography also play with a variety of styles, not stuck in a specific era or beholden to a style. These succeed in ways the book sometimes does not deliver, with its clunky shifting between rhyme and meter and plain-spoken English in ways the actors do their best to sell but I still found distracting.
There’s a great amount of fun to be had in Head Over Heels, even when the elements don’t cohere there’s joy in that disjunction and there’s charm in the reminder of the power of song and love to make our lives richer.
In the feature photo: Actors (front left to right) Kendra Lynn Lucas, Luke Bovenizer, Jordan Shafer, and (back left to right) Summit J Starr, Liam Cronin, Sha-Lemar Davis and Brian C Gray perform in Head Over Heels. Photo by Terry Gilliam.
Head Over Heels runs through April 3 with performances at 7:30 Thursday, 8:00 pm Friday and Saturday, and 2:00 pm Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit catco.org/2021-22/head-over-heels.