A Rave Review for Girls Night: The Musical, off-Broadway!

“BOTTOM LINE: Our highest recommendation!”

REVIEW: Girls Night: The Musical

New York Theater Guide – 6/29/2010 – Ron Gross

“BOTTOM LINE: Our highest recommendation! I’ve never seen an audience enjoy a musical more than at this touching and hilarious romp.

There was a table of six having a bachelorette party, a mom and her two 20-something daughters, and a banquette of boisterous gals sporting pink feather boas who were often on their feet, stampin’ and hootin’ and having the time of their lives.

I was too. And so will your racier attendees.

Girls Night follows five friends in their 30s and 40s during a wild and outrageous girls night out at a karaoke
bar. Pals since their teens, they have all had their fair share of heartache and tragedy, joy and success. Oh – one of them’s (gulp) dead – she’s wearing white angel wings, can’t be heard by the others, and can remember everything about their embarrassing moments together.

Among the living are Carol the party girl, blunt Anita who tells it like it is, Liza with her marital (and eating) issues, boring Kate the designated driver and Sharon, the not-so-angelic angel who just couldn’t resist tagging along. Together, they reminisce about their younger days, celebrate their current lives and look to the future, all the while belting out an array of classic anthems.

There’s a ‘guy’ too – but I won’t be a spoiler by telling you about him and his remarkable *****.

The cast is sensational: they project more energy and enjoyment than most ensembles currently on Broadway. But they are not standard showbiz beauties; in fact they are definitely on the pulchritudinous side, and they jiggle their stuff with wonderful comic and erotic effect.

If the show were a cocktail, it’d be made up of two parts ‘Sex and the City,’ one part ‘Desperate Housewives,’ and a dash of Grease. Backstage said that it ‘involves the audience in a way that the current Broadway cast of Hair in its earnestness, can only envy.’

The show brims with over a dozen rousing or deeply moving songs, from classics like ‘Cry Me a River’ and ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,’ to less renowned but equally delightful tunes like ‘The Love of My Man’ by Ed Townsend and ‘It’s Raining Men’ by Jabara and Shaffer.

Berty Jay leads the company as Liza, who can’t bear to limit her immense joy in living (to say nothing of her immense T & A) to just her husband. But kudos all around: Tina Mallon is bewitching as Sharon, Carly Sakolove is ebullient as fun-loving Carol, Deborah Radloff is terrific as Anita, and Laurie Gardner is disturbingly authentic as the troubled Kate.

The shenanigans are masterfully managed by director Jack Randle.

Girls Night is a perfect addition to your Spousal Offerings, especially for those gals who welcome language and
sentiments that jolt you out of your seat!”

Source: NYTheaterGuide.com