Who is the modern day equivalent of Elvis Presley? Is it Justin Bieber with his unique hairdos and sigh-inducing dance moves? Or Kanye West with his larger than life personality and hogging of the media? Is the modern Elvis actually a woman like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift who can bend sociopolitical narratives to best serve their commercial purposes? With how much the entertainment world has changed, there are no modern artists that quite fit the bill in terms of capturing the imagination of an entire country. The truth is there probably is no modern equivalent of Elvis. So how do you make a satire about the King of Rock and Roll relevant? The answer is, you simply stage it as it was originally imagined.
In Goodspeed Musicals’ production of Bye Bye Birdie (through September 8, 2016) director Jenn Thompson has eschewed any modern takes on the Charles Strouse/Lee Adams/Michael Stewart classic by presenting it in a straightforward manner. On the curtain we see images of 60s gadgets and commercials, an indication that we are about to engage in time travel and should leave our modern self-awareness behind, after all if we’re sitting in the audience it means we know how the musical relies on sexism and racial stereotypes to get many of its points across. Ms. Thompson’s earnest staging puts us in the same spot Mad Men did for over seven years, we saw pregnant women smoke and drink martinis, we saw macho men abuse their position, we knew it was wrong but admired the form and period detail so much that the show was never questioned. How then can we argue with this Birdie?
It’s because of this very sincerity that the ways in which our society has changed stick out even more, we can’t help but squirm in numbers like “Spanish Rose” which sees Rose (a vibrant Janet Dacal) sing her own praises through a pastiche of Hispanic clichés that range from tamales to tango. But numbers like these also point out how little we’ve changed making for a powerfully subdued dichotomy, for instance there are entire fragments of the American population who wish to build walls to keep away people like Rose.
In numbers like “Kids”, we see adults complain about the state of adolescents, inarguably an argument that hasn’t changed (previous generations will always misunderstand the ones that come later) but also one that can’t help but make us wish we were still living in a time when the worst kids were up to was sneaking out to dance and have cigarettes. It might sound reactionary, but really, when parents fear their children might be murdered every time they leave the house, who wouldn’t dream of a more “innocent” decade?
It’s quite telling that the second act curtain also features images of the 60s, a way to allow audience members to shake off the modernity of their small talk during intermission and bring them back to the period the show observes with the right balance of preciousness and awareness. If nothing else, Bye Bye Birdie works like a much needed escape from the darkness of our times. Seated there, watching the devastatingly handsome Rhett Guter as Conrad Birdie, shaking his hips like there’s no tomorrow, one can’t help but put on a happy face, a refreshing gift really, that makes this Birdie much more than welcome.
