There are some questions that we don't the answer to. What is the meaning of life? Is there an angelic heaven in the sky? But there's one question that I have the answer to. How hard you have to be a Jimmy Buffett fan to enjoy the new musical, Escape to Margaritaville which features songs from the top-40 songwriter himself? Very, very hard.
Going into the Marquis Theatre, I saw lots of parrotheads in the section where I seated. When I mentioned the word "parrotheads", they're not birds, but in their human body form, they're big fans of Jimmy Buffett. Some of them even played a game of small beach volleyball before the curtain started. Attending this show, I only knew and remember the one song that Buffett was made famous for and it gives the show's title. Yep. It's "Margaritaville", alright. I was hoping for a good-enough crowd-pleaser to entertain both the locals and outsiders (tourists, in other words). What I got in the end is a bland musical comedy that could have been more suitable for a Carnival Cruise Line audience if it had been performed on the ship instead of here in the Big Apple of all places.
Like every other show, it has a story. Taking place in a volcanic island in the Caribbean, Tully (Paul Alexander Nolan), who is an exact alter-ego for the singer, is a singer and a worker at the island's hotel, where he has his own family with the likes of the chubby Brick (Eric Petersen), old bum and pilot J.D. (Don Sparks) and his boss Marley (Rema Webb). Tully is also a beach casanova, bedding many female visitors and forgetting them when they leave the island.
Soon, two female visitors from cold and chilly Ohio arrive to have a week-long vacation for work and fun in the sun. The first one, a young scientist by the name of Rachel (Alison Luff), is here to pick up soil samples for a science project involving potatoes. The second one, her best friend Tammy (Lisa Howard), is here to have one last chance for relaxation before getting married to a hockey-loving jerk. Tully soon becomes attracted to Rachel, while his buddy Brick sets his sights on Tammy, who's trying to avoid having a bed-hopping affair before getting married. Soon as the week ends, so does the relationships. But Tully and Brick soon realizes that these two girls are the most important things in their lives. Did I mention that there's a volcano in the plot? Yes, but that's one short subplot.
Tony winning director Christopher Ashley and choreographer Kelly Devine try their best, but they couldn't give this show a more shocking spark of energy that they gave last time to the Newfoundlanders in the still-running hit Come From Away. The book by TV comedy writers Greg Garcia and Mike O'Malley is simply third-rate sitcom material, despite working better in the second act than the first act. But, usual kudos has to go to the creative department for making the Caribbean look like a picturesque cardboard. Walt Spanger's sets and Howell Binkley's lighting give it enough glitter and the contemporary costumes by Paul Tazewell look colorful.
When it came to the songs that Buffett arranged from his song catalog for the show, I was less than pleased. Not listening to some of his songs before seeing the show (excluding the title song), I was mostly a stranger to the music itself. Speaking of the title song, which ends the first act, it's easily the only bright spot in this otherwise meaningless piece that's passed for entertainment.
As the show's main couple, Nolan and Luff are pretty stiff, not much carrying an abundance of chemistry to make it work. But, I enjoyed the secondary couple even better. As Brick and Tammy, Petersen and Howard are both appealing and terrific. If I were a script doctor for the show, I would had made Brick and Tammy the center couple and it would have make a better show, but yet I move on.
Since there's a name of a drink in the show's title, I presume that many of the audience (including parrotheads and excluding pre-21 years olds) went to the bar before the show or during intermission for a taste of the island in alcoholic form. For me, I went sober throughout the whole show. The day after seeing it, I forgotten much of the show in my memory despite avoiding the alcoholic drinks. This is one opinion from a guy who's not much of a parrothead and is still sticking to being clean and sober.
The main point is this. If you're a Buffett diehard, you'll fall for it easily. If not, why not go catch the real paradise on Broadway nowadays, Spongebob, or take a family vacation away from the city for a few days. There are lots of ways to waste your time for the sake of entertainment. This Escape is definitely not worth it, unless you're a parrothead.
The Buzz on Escape to Margaritaville:
Rating: *1/2
Bottom Line: A routine time-waster that Buffett fans will enjoy more than others.
Recommended Best for: Ages 13 and up. Contains adult language and sexual material. Not much worthy unless you're a Buffett diehard.
Playing at: The Marquis Theatre, located upstairs on the third floor of the Marriot Marquis Hotel on 210 West 46th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues) for an open-ended run. For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com, todaytix.com/x/nyc or call 877-250-2929.
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