The story of famed evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker comes to life in a new Broadway musical starring Katie Brayben, Christian Borle, and Michael Cerveris! The show opens tonight and the critics stopped by the newly renovated Palace Theatre to hear the gospel of Tammy! Read the reviews as they roll in!
The story of a traveling preacher’s wife who beamed into homes with a message of hope… and stole the country’s heart. It’s the 1970s. As satellites broadcast brand-new cable programming into American homes, millions fall in love with Tammy Faye Bakker – the charismatic wife of pastor Jim Bakker. Together, they build a nationwide congregation that puts the fun back into faith. But, even as Tammy dazzles on screen, jealous rivals plot behind the scenes, threatened by her determination to lead with love.
Featuring a score by Elton John, with lyrics by Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, a book by Olivier Award-winning playwright James Graham, and directed by Olivier Award winner Rupert Goold.
Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times: But after that teasing introduction, Tammy Faye’s signature Kabuki facade barely figures in the disjointed, strangely bland musical that opened on Thursday at the newly renovated Palace Theater. It is laudable that the show’s composer, Elton John; lyricist, Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters); book writer, James Graham; and director, Rupert Goold, tried to go behind the mask of this complicated, outsize woman, whose public persona was shaped by and for television. The problem is that they ended up making her smaller than life.
Frank Rizzo, Variety: It takes more than a holy spirit and revivalist verve to make “Tammy Faye” divinely suited for musical theater. It would take a creative team knowing what their show wants to be: a campy hoot, a stinging indictment, an anguished melodrama, a witty satire, a revealing biography? The new Broadway musical “Tammy Faye” touches on all of these points of view but lands on none with any sense of confidence, consistency or purpose. It’s as messy as Tammy’s mascara.
Greg Evans, Deadline: Opening tonight at Broadway‘s Palace Theater, with a book by James Graham, lyrics by Jake Shears and music by Elton John, Tammy Faye is only slightly more fun than church on a hot July day. All concerned seem absolutely determined to transform the town madcap into a respectable, saintly and rather dull church-lady-next-door.
Robert Hofler, The Wrap: That ghastly waking nightmare will give you some idea of what it’s like to sit through the new musical “Tammy Faye,” which opened Thursday at the Palace Theatre after its world premiere last year in London. Just as TV Evangelists suck up to their right-wing audience, the makers of “Tammy Faye” pander to feminists and “the gays.” Jake Shears’ puerile lyrics to Elton John’s weak country-Western tunes encourage women to take control of their life by using those “credit cards.” Much worse and more pervasive are the many ways James Graham’s book turns the title character into a gay icon somewhere to the left of Lady Gaga. We’re expected to find Tammy Faye sympathetic, even though she begs for money from poor people so she can look like a hideously dressed drag queen. Costumes are by Katrina Lindsay; Luc Verschueren designed the hair, wigs and make-up.
Adam Feldman, Time Out New York: The trouble with this conception is that Tammy Faye herself is almost the least garish thing about it. Brayben won an Olivier Award for this role, but there’s a fundamental Englishness about her that she can’t quite shake; she’s solid and sympathetic, and sings extremely well, but she doesn’t access Tammy’s rawness and almost childlike ebullience—the personal charisma at the center of her brand of Charismatic Christianity. And the musical doesn’t help her get there. The qualities that made Tammy Faye a gay icon—the cosmetics, the pills, the excess, the tears—are addressed only glancingly; we don’t get inside her head about them. Instead, Tammy Faye serves us a likable, sincere gal doing the best she can in a world whose machinations she doesn’t understand. But does Tammy Faye understand them any better? Its point of view is hard to discern. The eyes may be a window to the soul, as Tammy was wont to say, but it’s hard to see the soul through eyes that can’t decide if they’re glaring, winking or crying.
Michael Musto, The Village Voice: Throughout, Sir Elton’s music reveals flashes of his traditional lilt, and Shear’s lyrics are smart, though they generally capture mood and character more than they advance the plot. Near the finish line, the show doesn’t know how to end — there’s a jail visit, then the doctor’s office again, followed by a stop in purgatory; along the way there’s even talk of the Betty Ford Clinic. (Tammy Faye had become as dependent on prescription drugs as on eyebrow pencils.) The creators make the mawkish mistake of bringing back the AIDS guy, so Tammy Faye can hug him again. But the show’s effervescent spirit keeps it all chugging along, abetted by Bunny Christie’s set, a tic-tac-toe-ish board of rectangles that are ingeniously used as TV screens as well as cubicles for actors (and puppets) to pop up in and emote from.
Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: Let’s be relatively brief because it’s mean to keep beating a dead duck like Tammy Faye, poor thing. A surprisingly flat-liner musical involving tunes from Elton John scarcely composing in top form and a sorrowful cartoony story about American TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, the production that opened Thursday at the Palace Theatre does not promise to become a longtime Broadway attraction.
Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review: There is something to be said, musical comedy-wise, in leaving the answer ambiguous so that viewers can puzzle it out for themselves. The overriding flaw in Tammy Faye is that the creators seem content to jump from satire to morality tale, from Tammy-the-charlatan with her friendly proctologist to Tammy the AIDS crusader, with no clear aim other than to maximize audience response moment by moment.
Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide: Like its real-life title character, the Elton John musical Tammy Faye isn’t flawless. But you must admire its flash, energy, and a bright star turn by Broadway newcomer Katie Brayben in the lead role.
Brian Scott Lipton, Cititour: But since its composer and lyricist, Elton John and Jake Shears, are openly gay, and its book writer, James Graham, is gender-fluid, there may be a whiff of a truth of those words. Still, here’s the question I have, as a fellow gay man: Why do you want to take credit for such a messy enterprise – one that never fully makes up its mind of what sort of show it wants to be, leaving audiences with a severe case of tonal whiplash.
Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: Yet for all its promise, “Tammy Faye” struck me as essentially hollow, without a clear reason for existing. The score sounds largely generic; the sets look deliberately chintzy; the book mistakes crudeness for cleverness.
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