I only vaguely remember the Betty Boop comics. I’ve been told that there are historical videos on YouTube. I never got around to watching those before seeing this show. A friend asked me what this musical was about and I couldn’t say. I had seen a trailer. I knew that David Foster was involved. I knew Angelica Hale was in it. That was all I needed to know. I told her that I expected it to have a lot of singing and dancing and that the music was likely to be good, because Foster was involved.
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David Foster
I first learned about David Foster, because I was a huge Grobanite. Josh was originally signed by Foster. Josh told stories of his initial interactions with Foster. Later I read an autobiography, I saw more and more YouTube videos featuring him. I went to one of his concerts with his wife, Kat McPhee, last spring.
Foster intrigues me. He is a huge genius. He was playing piano with adult musicians when he was 6. He has done accompaniment, production, arrangement, conducting, and promotion for many famous singers other than Josh: Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Whitney Houston, Blake Shelton, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton .. and more, He has 16 Grammys and 47 nominations.
When my brother graduated from college, there was a speaker named Marian Wright Edelman. That’s a thing with college graduations. They give honorary degrees to people who they want to have speak at graduation. The only thing I remember from her speech went something like this “There is no end to the good we can do, if we let someone else take the credit.”
Foster is a master of this. He was told early in his career that, while he is a brilliant pianist, his stage presence when playing is not great — also his singing hasn’t been great, tho it’s improving, I’ve noticed.
So, he finds these singers. They stand in front of his piano. They have beautiful voices. They have great charisma. They distract the audience. He sits behind the piano and plays and conducts the orchestra. His ear is said to be so sensitive that he can hear a butterfly in a hurricane. He has often composed and/or arranged the music. He seldom has sheet music. It’s all from memory. Sometimes he shouts out praise for the singer before or after the song. He introduces them with flowery introductions. He gets the audience to be fans of the singer.
Yet, all the while, he is the genius. He is the puppeteer behind the scenes. People are on to him, tho. He’s been invited to judge TV talent shows in Asia.
People have been asking him to write a musical for a long time and he's said he was working on it. He finally did. Yet, if you look at the program, he’s just one name amongst many, credited with writing the music — while others are credited for lyrics, production, acting — whatever. Yet, despite his lack of prominence in the program, I believe he was really the mastermind here.
And this is where he thrives. His concerts with his wife, where it’s mostly just the two of them, haven’t had the popularity of some of the other performers that he’s promoted. He’s self-effacing. He’s doing exactly what Marian Wright Edelman said to do. He’s letting everyone else take the credit -- except he generally does get a fair amount of money
Apparently, Foster was in the audience, but I went to the restroom before leaving the theater, so I missed him. I'm an old lady. I have to be mindful of restrooms. Also, I was in the back of the balcony -- as usual -- because I feel that is least germy. I think germs are heavier than air and tend to fall away from the balcony. I'm pretty sure he was in the orchestra, so I likely would have missed him anyway. I met a young fan afterwards at the stage door who said she had shaken his hand.
Angelica Hale
Another person I was interested in was Angelica Hale. I’m not a music producer, and the sound on YouTube videos is not that great. Therefore, other than the fact that she was cute, I wasn’t quite sure why the talent show judges were so very enthused about her singing when she was a child. But I have an acquaintance on X who was also very enthused about her. He and I have a shared interest in child prodigy singers.
She has been very persistent in pursuing her music. She has a YouTube channel. She puts out videos. She appears on the videos of her voice teacher, Tara Simons, who reviews singers online, and has become something of a celebrity herself. And she managed to book this role — the child or adolescent who is a longtime fan of Boop, 100 years after Boop first appeared in the comics. I watch her on YouTube.
I don’t know how to say this politely, but she has an enormous mouth. I hope she doesn't think I'm insulting her by saying that. It's a professional advantage, I think. If I could open my mouth that wide, I would probably be a better singer as well.
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So this is why I went: Foster & Hale.
I wasn’t sure that was a good reason to be at opening night of previews of a new Broadway musical. A friend assured me that it was.
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Sound
If you’ve been reading this column for a long time, you know that I have sensitive ears. The audio is generally the first thing that I comment on, so I might as well just do that and get it over with -- even tho I think it was the only flaw in the show, which was otherwise excellent. Starting out with the negative is not good psychology, I know -- but here goes.
The orchestra was too loud. It was uncomfortable to listen to. I don't ordinarily have this problem on Broadway. It's an issue with concert tours, but not usually on Broadway.
The volume of the orchestra was a particular problem with hearing the lyrics when the star, Jasmine Amy Rogers, was singing.
She has mastered a sound that was very like the sound of early sound recordings from the first talkies. People sang higher then.
High singing has all but disappeared, because modern audio technology clips the overtones of sopranos, so they don't sound good. This is one of the ways that the music industry -- like so many other industries -- discriminates against women. I've even noticed it being a problem with Josh Groban. For years I thought he was losing his edge in singing, particularly high notes, then I realized recently that it was just that the audio technology was clipping his overtones.
But there was also a slightly different accent back then in the early talkies -- and a slight scratchy sound.
She had all of that down -- very impressive -- but, unfortunately, not loud enough to be heard clearly over the orchestra.
It should be noted that the Broadhurst, while a Broadway theater, is somewhat smaller than some others, so sound carries better, which is probably why the orchestra sounded too loud -- but the sound balance between Rogers and the orchestra is for the audio engineers.
I saw their setup when I went down to the restroom just before intermission. Very impressive panel with lots of controls and lights. I didn't say anything to them, tho. I didn't want to distract them during the show.
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OK, let's get back to the show
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General Description
How to describe this surprisingly complex show? It's about the comic strip. It's a musical, of course. There's a sci-fi aspect. There's a coming of age story. There are sub-plots about overcoming political corruption and sexual harassment. There are two romances. There is fantastic puppetry. The sets are often computer generated on a screen, tho there are props. It's light and joyful. There is no high drama suffering or breathtaking suspense. The music, aside from being loud, has grandeur.
We live in very serious times. It was nice to have something light and fluffy to watch.
I'm never quite sure what is a spoiler. If you don't want to know details about the show you could stop here. I'm going to start with some of the tricks they used to convey plot elements. I don't know how many of the plot elements were actually in the original comics. Maybe, if you're a Boop fan, you already know the story. I've found that with the Marvel Comics movies. My son will tell me that the story was following the comic books. He knows this, somehow, because he's a master of trivia and he remembers all kinds of details about these things.
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Colors & Worlds:
The show deals with two worlds.
One is the world of Betty Boop, a black and white comic strip story. In this world, everything is black and white, and even the characters are made a bit paler by makeup -- tho they don't actually put on pancake makeup to make their skin really white or grey. The props and costumes are black and white. The background screen is old timey animation.
The other world is "reality" which happens in 2025 in New York City. Reality is in color. This is sort of like the Wizard of Oz, where Kansas is black and white and Oz is in color.
She travels from one world to the other using sci-fi contraptions that look very like early movie and comic strip conceptions of sci-fi machines. The obvious fakeness of the gadgets does not distract from the show, because it's true to the context: old time comic strips and movies.
The colors of the costumes, when Boop arrives in reality, are very bright. She has to learn the colors, as she has never seen colors before.
Later, there is a wonderful dance where the dancers have costumes that are colorful on one side and black and white on the other, with some having the black & white on the back and others on the front. When they do this dance, they switch which direction they are facing to symbolize which world they are representing. I thought this was very clever.
One curious thing is that people in "reality" seem to have no trouble believing that this is really Betty Boop out of the comics. Also, there never seems to be an issue that she wouldn't have any real money or need a place to stay. Those sorts of real reality issues kind of call into question whether she has actually voyaged to reality -- or rather just another comic strip.
One item of suspense is that Betty Boop's world cannot exist without her -- therefore everyone there is imperiled by her absence.
Puppetry:
Boop's dog is represented by a marionette. They don't hide the marionettist at all. He's right there with the dog puppet -- tho he generally keeps his face down, looking at the puppet -- and wears solid, dark colors including a baseball style cap. Yet the little dog is marvelous -- so convincing and cute. He is well lit to draw attention away from the operator. I feel this puppetry was probably the best I've ever seen. If you're a fan of puppetry, it would be worth going to see the show just for this -- seriously, maybe even if you're not a particular fan of puppetry.
Romance:
There are 2 couples that fall in love between the two worlds. Boop falls for a young jazz musician in reality. The professor, who invented the time machine and visited reality before, falls in love with a female scientist who he first met on his first voyage. This is a second sort of suspenseful thing that arises during the show. Are these lovers star crossed? More later
Coming of Age:
This is where Angelica Hale came in. She plays a young fan of Boop. When Boop arrives in reality, she pops in at Comic Con -- fortuitously -- the one place where a comic book character would be totally expected. And, fortuitously, the first person who sees her is a Boop fan.
I've never actually been to Comic Con. I have no idea how many Boop fans are out there. It's an old comic. It doesn't seem likely that there are a huge number of Boop fans, but this girl is definitely a fan. She's all decked out with Boop pix and immediately recognizes Boop.
Boop ends up going home with her. She learns that the girl is a talented painter -- and she encourages the girl to follow her talent rather than trying to become Boop.
Then Hale has a solo.
Now, was it because I was specifically interested in Hale and listened more closely? Was I prejudiced by that?
But I feel she was really extraordinary. I could hear what the judges heard in her -- a sound that does not come through in YouTube videos at all -- a powerful sound, with rich overtones and magnificent vibrato. While the orchestra made Rogers hard to hear, there was no such problem with Hale. Hale's voice rang out like a clarion. I wondered if she really even needed a mic. Broadway performers tend to have good voices but she was a standout.
It's not clear how old this character is. Hale herself is 17. Maybe the character is 17 as well, because she's applying to Cooper Union.
But she doesn't come off as old as she is. She's very short. She's very deferential towards Boop. She's told not to take the subway alone. The impression is definitely of a child fan.
So it's particularly startling that this huge voice comes out when she sings -- clearly not the voice of a child -- he voice an adult master singer and great artist.
I feel so hesitant to become her fan. I know she has a transplanted kidney. Those don't last as long as original kidneys. I fear that I'm looking at a potential tragedy here.
Still, for now, there is this star quality voice -- definitely expecting her to be up there with the all time greats.
I met her after the show. I told her I watch her youtube channel. She thanked me. She is very gracious. She definitely comes across as 17 when you meet her in person -- despite her small stature. She signed my program. I got a bunch of signatures, so I'm not sure which was her.
This is not to take away from Rogers, who is a great performer as well. As I mentioned, Rogers was trying to imitate a particular sound from the early days of talkies. She is perfectly capable of projecting -- and she does more later in the show -- perhaps to show evolution of character.
I didn't see Hale doing much dancing -- not sure if that's one of her talents.
This whole experience is helping me see a big defect of the TV talent shows. I can't hear, in a YouTube video, what the judges hear. I don't know why they go wild over particular performers. When I heard Hale in person, it was different. Suddenly, the extraordinary quality of her voice was apparent.
****
Restrooms
Race
Sexual Harassment
Opera Glasses
Dinner beforehand
I think I'm going to post this now & maybe add more later. I often do that.
Definite spoiler
Some Instagram videos about this show
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