review ‘The Heart of Rock and Roll’: Huey Lewis’ B'way show is hilarious fun

[samhexum]

'The Heart of Rock and Roll' review: Huey Lewis' Broadway show is...

NYPOST.COM

---

There’s rock and rolling in the aisles.

JOHNNY OLEKSINSKI

 

Here’s something I never imagined writing five years ago: In 2024, there are no musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber currently running on Broadway, but there are somehow two that feature the songs of Huey Lewis & The News.

Even more surprising is that one of those shows, “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” which opened Monday night at the James Earl Jones Theatre, has turned out to be an underdog highlight of the season. (The other, “Back to the Future: The Musical,” did not.)

Rolled out modestly, little “Heart” is also a lot more fun and proudly frivolous than any of its sober-minded neighbors. It’s perhaps the first time in my life that I’ve been happy to see a confetti cannon at curtain call.

The show is hilarious, too. Set in 1987, the musical is not only a brightly-colored time machine back to the decade of big hair and boomboxes, but the lighthearted Times Square of not so long ago.

Lewis’ catchy hits like “Back In Time,” “The Power of Love” and “Hip To Be Square” are paired with book-writer Jonathan A. Abrams’ winning jokes about human resources and IKEA. There’s rock and rolling in the aisles.

I don’t mean this as a slight, but Abrams’ man-with-a-plan tale could be ripped from a lovably bad 1980s movie such as “The Secret of My Success” or “Road House.”

Actually, as Bobby, a Milwaukee factory worker who’s trying to climb the corporate ladder, the dishy and talented Corey Cott is the spitting image of the latter film’s star Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing.”

Bobby’s workin’ for a livin’ at a cardboard plant, run by Mr. Stone (John Dossett) and his daughter Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz), but he dreams of rising the ranks into a plum sales gig.  

After “Kinky Boots,” you would think there was no more cleverness to be mined from assembly-line shenanigans. Wrong! Choreographer Lorin Latarro has the cast perform a campy tap dance on a big piece of bubble wrap that’s “Anything Goes” meets the Monty Python coconuts.

After Bobby goes rogue and fails at signing a big client, the boss gives him the ax. Determined to succeed regardless, he follows Stone and Cassandra to a conference in Chicago with friend and HR director Roz (Tamika Lawrence) to try one more time to win the account of a wacky Swedish furniture store founder named Fjord (Orville Mendoza).

While staying at the Drake Hotel, a romance blooms with work-obsessed Cassandra, even though she’s also being chased by her preppy ex-boyfriend Tucker (Billy Harrison Tighe, a real smarm-er). And Bobby also starts to have the urge to rejoin his old rock band, The Loop.

You see what I mean about the plot resembling (surely on purpose) wacky ‘80s movies? “The Heart of Rock and Roll” is practically “Cocktail.”

Cranked-up antics ensue on Derek McLane’s set that begins as Super Mario Bros.-style pipes of the factory, then whooshes to bubblegum plush settees at the hoity-toity Drake and finally a concert venue.     

This Wonka-fied vision of a workplace is populated by sensational dancers and singers, who fuse rock, pop and musical theater styles with ’80s informercial grins. 

But they sell the tunes with knockout comedy. There’s a Richard Simmons “Sweatin’ To The Oldies” parody, and a dream ballet for Cassandra about how horrifying it would be to marry her ex.

Kurtz makes for a caffeinated version of Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl” — quirky, optimistic and appealingly awkward. And Lawrence, as irritated Roz, speaks fluent punchline. Playing the Swede, all Mendoza needs to do to get laughs is weirdly say sauna (“soooow-nuh!”).

When most musicians hand over their catalogue to a Broadway show, it’s for a respectable biography like “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” or “Jersey Boys.”

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I'm seeing this tomorrow night.  Big Huey Lewis/News fan here.

The buzz on this show is great.  I didn't expect it, but happy to hear.

[RyanDean]

Probably the happiest surprise of the season for me. Simple, funny, goodtime with a very appealing cast -- and Corey Cott's gorgeous and impressive arms.
Did you enjoy it @BenjaminNicholas?

[MaybeMaybeNot]

I am not a fan of jukebox musicals, but I am a big fan of Corey Cott's. If I was in NYC while he was in it,  I would see if. 

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

3 hours ago, RyanDean said:

Probably the happiest surprise of the season for me. Simple, funny, goodtime with a very appealing cast -- and Corey Cott's gorgeous and impressive arms.
Did you enjoy it @BenjaminNicholas?

It was the very best of what a jukebox musical does.  

And the '80s pastiche of it all was great.

I liked that they didn't 'broadway' up the music too much.  They kept Huey's songs pretty straight forward and the vocal arrangements didn't come across as jazzhands and cheese. 

[+ WilliamM]

Giive me Rodgers and  Hammerstein  and Forbidden Broadway 

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

1 hour ago, WilliamM said:

Giive me Rodgers and  Hammerstein  and Forbidden Broadway 

There's a place for that as well.  This is something new and different.  

As for Forbidden Broadway, it's coming back, this time to Broadway.  Expect a revolving door of theater stars guesting in the show on a nightly basis.

https://forbiddenbroadwayonbroadway.com/