Bring It On: The Musical at Temple Buell Theatre
Craig Schwartz
Finally, the epic masterpiece of film Bring It On has grown musical wings, and can be seen onstage as Bring It On: The Musical. We will see your spirit arms, ponytails flying gracefully through the air, and wholesome competition, and raise you some live tumbling action and downright inspirational song-and-dance numbers.
Campbell is an ambitious cheer captain forced to leave her white-bread high school, Truman, for an inner-city school called Jackson. Jackson is a more vibrant world filled with metal detectors, hip neon clothing, dance crews, sassy transgendered girls who teach lessons about self-esteem, disarmingly smart love interests with steely Jacob-from-Twilight looks, and just way more black people in general. Cheerleaders fly through the air. A suddenly out-of-place Campbell learns that the evil cheerbitch Eva has stolen her old life and her Chad boyfriend back at Truman. She is forced to re-examine her blind commitment to winning and fitting in, and she learns a lesson about friendship. And then more cheerleaders fly through the air.
The young cast is filled with Triple Ts: The actress who plays Campbell, Taylor Louderman, is a dead ringer for Cher from Clueless, and she’s likeable enough to say things like “Let’s kick some cheer booty, y’all!” without inspiring the desire to immediately punch her in the face. The Queen of Jackson, Danielle, played by Adrienne Warren, is fabulous, and her cohorts are lovable and funny. The evil cheerbitch Eva, played by Elle McLemore, is such a cute, little Polly Pocket of a human being that it’s hard not to like her even after she sociopaths all over the place. Even the popular cheerleader cohorts, Skylar and Kylar, are hilarious.
The choreography, tumbling, and spectacular cheerleader-throwing are the main attractions of the show, followed closely by the uncanny ability of the cheerleaders to go from wearing full dresses to just sparkly undergarments in mere seconds.
The humor feels forced at times, especially in the lines fed to Bridget, played by Ryann Redmond. As much as the world needs a great nerdy girl character who has a few extra pounds of lovin’, the “I hate myself!” jokes feel cringeworthy instead of funny, even though Bridget does find her self-esteem in the end with a song that showcases Redmond’s outstanding voice.
The creative team behind Bring It On: The Musical is made up of Tony Award winners: librettist Jeff Whitty, composers Tom Kitt and Lin Manuel Miranda, and director Andy Blankenbuehler, among others. The lyrics are co-written by Amanda Green, who also did High Fidelity, so perhaps that’s why they’re actually funny most of the time. If you can get through some corny jokes and inspirational songs, Bring It On: The Musical is a cheerful, very bouncy good time, and even earned a standing ovation from the crowd when it was over. Indeed! It has already been broughten.
See it live at the Temple Buell Theatre until Jan. 21.
