Review Roundup: BEACHES Opens on Broadway

Reviews are rolling in for the Broadway production of Beaches, a new musical based on the classic film, celebrating the power of female friendship. Did critics have a day at the beach at Beaches? Find out in our review roundup! 

The cast of Beaches, A New Musical, is led by Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett as Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White and features Sarah Bockel, Harper Burns, Eric Coles, Taylor Sage Evans, Mia Gerachis, Zeya Grace, Joelle Gully, Ben Jacoby, Stephanie Martignetti, Emma Ogea, Olive Ross-Kline, Bailey Ryon, Paul Adam Schaefer, Samantha Schwartz, Brent Thiessen, Lael Van Keuren, and Zurin Villanueva. 

Based on the New York Times bestseller that became a blockbuster film, written by Iris Rainer Dart, Beaches brings to the stage one of the most iconic friendships in popular culture – made famous on screen by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. This sweeping, emotional, and joy-filled new musical follows the vivacious Cee Cee and elegant Bertie, who meet as children and become fast friends. From pen-pals to roommates to romantic rivals, Cee Cee and Bertie’s oil-and-water friendship perseveres through even the most tragic trials. With a touching vulnerability, Beaches exemplifies the triumph of the human spirit and the bonds of friendship. The new musical features a book by Iris Rainer Dart & Thom Thomas, music by Mike Stoller and lyrics by Dart. The musical was developed in collaboration with David Austin. 

Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times: Bertie’s impending death is the frame for the story of their friendship, the telling of which is distractingly sloppy as the action toggles between 1985 and the past. The set (by James Noone), which has a cut-rate roadshow look, is highly reliant on video (by David Bengali). Yet those changeable surfaces are never used to note what year it is, or where the characters are geographically — details that you will puzzle over, along with how old the adult Cee Cee and Bertie are meant to be at any given time.

Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: Dart’s libretto is equally shabby. Several improvements that were made for the movie have been reversed, most damagingly in the major fight that threatens to end the central friendship forever; it now emerges implausibly from a comment about stemware and relies on the hoary dramatic cliché of someone walking in on a kiss at exactly the wrong moment. (The central relationship has nowhere near the depth of either the film or the original novel.) The score includes a few truly terrible sequences, such as a wedding scene (“Holy holy matrimony / Holy moley matrimony”) and a cringeworthy commiseration duet by Cee Cee and Bertie’s husbands (Brent Thiessen and Ben Jacoby, respectively). But mostly it’s just banal and inconsistent, particularly in Bertie’s material.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: “Beaches, A New Musical” opened tonight at Broadway’s Majestic Theater thirty-eight years after the movie “Beaches” left critics largely unimpressed (“a movie completely constructed… out of cliches,” Roger Ebert wrote), but won over the public, with its story of a lifelong, loving friendship between two women, Cee Cee and her polar opposite Hillary (portrayed by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey.) It’s possible that the stage version (starring Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett) will also find its audience. But it’s hard to see why we needed it.

Juan A. Ramirez, Theatrely: Beaches, the musical, is not bad but it is fatally misguided. Its source material – Iris Rainer Dart’s 1985 novel, later adapted into a cult film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey – has retained its melodramatic grip on culture, if only for its Grammy-winning theme, “Wind Beneath My Wings.” It even shares the same threads of a female friendship spun throughout decades with this century’s most wildly successful Broadway adaptation, Wicked. But even with Dart returning to write the stage show’s book and lyrics (Thom Thomas assisting with the latter), it is very hard to care about anything onstage.

Bob Verini, New York Stage Review: Aside from the two leads, brash young Samantha Schwartz as brash young Cee Cee in flashbacks, and James Noone’s efficient and attractive jigsaw-piece-collage set, that’s pretty much it on the credit side of the ledger. Whichever of the co-directors, Lonny Price or Matt Cowart, was responsible for steering the supporting players into feeble sterotypical caricatures has a lot to answer for.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: Of the creative staff Tracy Christensen’s costumes, Ken Billington’s lighting, and Kai Harada’s sound meet their mark. Surprisingly, the set from usually reliable James Noone’s does not. Oddly dark and compressed, it features a raised platform midstage, beyond which is a screen where David Bengali projects images of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. When the older and younger Cee Cees and Berties tip their toes in those waters, however, they do their dipping downstage, almost disconcertingly over the orchestra pit. Anyway, if Dart doesn’t hit her musical target high enough this time, there’s evidence—isn’t there?—that she’s primed to try, try again.

N/A, Josh at the Movies: Bette Midler’s 1988 classic tearjerker Beaches has long endured the test of time, even earning multiple Grammy Awards for the iconic, “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” Beaches, A New Musical opts to forgo most of that legendary soundtrack, supercharged by Midler ballads, instead forging ahead with a new original score by Michael Stoller, and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart. The songs here are not the most memorable (particularly a few fillers by the generic men), yet this take on Beaches captures the magic of that timeless friendship for one of New York’s biggest stages. Through over three decades, we follow Cee Cee and Bertie on their epic parallel trajectories of highs and lows. This ultimately becomes a passionate love letter to the 80s film visually, both for better and worse. Gorgeous set design, the two most adorable child actresses to step into these roles, and the potency of its strong narrative carry Beaches through a few significant flaws.

Greg Evans, Deadline: Kelli Barrett, as the adult Bertie, is suitably prim and proper, pitched to a more human level than CeeCee but not significantly more convincing. We can only imagine what each of these characters sees in the other aside from plot mandates, with an audience’s sense of ’80s nostalgia required to do some very heavy lifting. The men in the cast – Ben Jacoby and Brent Thiessen – are suitably smarmy in their stick-thin roles, with the supporting adult actresses – Sarah Bockel and Lael Van Keuren – playing the mothers with caricature zeal. Zurin Villanueva, as a late-in-the-show hospice caretaker, has a refreshing natural ease hinting at a sturdier Beaches that might have been.

Robert Hofler, The Wrap: Stoller’s songs are serviceable, Rainer Dart’s lyrics are something less. There’s nothing as catchy as Stoller’s “Yakety Yak” or “Jailhouse Rock.” To make up for that deficit, the show closes with “Wind Beneath My Wings,” even though Stoller didn’t write it. That credit belongs to Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley, who have been relegated to a “special thanks” on the last page of the Playbill credits. A mess as major as “Beaches” required not one but two directors, Lonny Price and Matt Cowart.

Frank Rizzo, Variety: Sadly there’s little wind beneath this uninspired musical’s thin and tattered wings. Even the film’s critic-defying, pinky-swearing fanbase may be disappointed in the barebones production, jarring plotting, tired dialogue and ham-handed staging. A tour is slated after the limited Broadway run.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide: As scripted, the two women are dramatically lopsided. Cee Cee is far more dynamic, and Vosk gamely and aptly pours forth enough brass to fill a horn section and enlists her mighty belt. As the passive Bertie, who forgoes law school because of a guy in this version, Barrett brings vulnerability and an endearing quality to her songs and scenes. As co-directed by Lonny Price and Matt Cowart, the production moves in fits and starts between periodic blackouts. You’d expect a show called Beaches to have more flow and fluidity — and hope it would make a bigger splash.

Cameron Kelsall, Exeunt: There were tissues passed and ovations proffered during the curtain call, but the emotional response felt more perfunctory than earned. Beaches may have “Wind Beneath My Wings,” but there’s little wind in its sails. Tell the management at Joe Allen to make space on the flop wall.

Lindsay B. Davis, 1 Minute Critic: In the musical’s final moments, Vosk belts the show’s one film holdover—Grammy-winning tearjerker “Wind Beneath My Wings”—and the sound of tissues rustling is palpable. You may not be sure why you or your neighbor is crying. Emotional recall? Vosk’s soaring performance? For some, it won’t matter. The catharsis is as fleeting as the tide.

Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: Thiessen and Jacoby, the only men in the main cast, are saddled with seriously underwritten roles that deserve to be on the periphery: This is essentially a rom-com about two women, and the guys are merely obstacles to the couple getting together in the end. The actors even team up for a duet to wallow in their second-fiddle status and improbably lament, “I wish I could diagnose / why men never get that close.” (Dart’s lyrics tend to be very on the nose.) Hint: It’s not about you. It was never about you. This show misses so much of what made Beaches a phenomenon, in addition to an attention-grabbing turn by Midler in her prime. Filmgoers, women especially, were drawn to the focus on a longtime, entirely platonic female friendship as something that’s every bit as emotionally satisfying as any traditional boy-meets-girl romance. There’s not much that’s satisfying about the flotsam that’s washed up on the shores of the Majestic.

Richard Lawson, The Guardian: I wish them luck in that endeavor. But it may only be Vosk who can get them there. Doing one’s best Bette Midler for an audience of (presumably) Bette Midler fans is a task even the most formidable drag queen would think twice about attempting. But Vosk attacks the role with cheering vigor, bringing necessary old-fashioned brass that the show just can’t muster elsewhere. It is, in the end, a fitting Midler tribute act, a loving homage to how much work the grand diva has done over the years to take maudlin material and make it something close to divine.

Dave Quinn, People: There’s enough talent here to suggest a stronger show could emerge with sharper focus, stronger songs and a more balanced approach to its central relationship. As it stands, though, this Beaches is washed-up.

Sarah Hearon, Entertainment Weekly: Cee Cee drops everything to take care of Bertie as the women are reunited at the beach before she takes her last breath. Singing the signature song from the movie, Vosk is joined by Teen Cee Cee and Little Cee Cee for “The Wind Beneath My Wings,” which will have you reaching for your best friend and making her promise not to die. Okay, maybe that was just me, but either way, you’ll be grabbing your tissues and be reminded that Vosk truly is a powerhouse. Grade B–

Johnny Oleksinki, The New York Post: For a musical that’s been squatting in various cities for more than 10 years, it’s hard to believe that so many crummy songs have stuck around all this time. The melodies range from forgettable to bouncy-house random. And the lyrics are, well, they’re by a novelist.

Dan Rubins, Slant Magazine: When we meet Cee Cee in flashback, she’s been dressed by her stage mother in red sequins and fishnet stockings, all the better to catch the attention of the show biz bigwigs. She’s smart and well-meaning, a kid stuffed into grown-up clothing. Adorable as she is, she doesn’t really fit. Beaches is kind of like that, a lovely little show with a sweet heart that’s all dolled up for a the nearly 2,000-seat Majestic Theatre when it could alight with greater grace somewhere cozier.

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune: In terms of score and book and mostly digitized set design from James Noone, “Beaches” certainly makes no formative or stylistic waves, and the show feels, at times, like everyone involved here just wanted to be finished and done and get out of all of this in one piece, with a tour and licensing to come. The score is serviceable, with a recurring song called “My Best” (as in friend) its best number.