Boop! The Betty Boop Musical Takes Chicago

Whenever I see that a show is doing a pre-Broadway run, I’ve got to check it out – I’m too curious of a person, and I also love being privy to things right when they’re released. Boop! The Betty Boop Musical is the latest to come through Chicago and work through its kinks before it heads The Great White Way.

Unbeknown to me, I happened to be attending the very first night that the musical was open to the public. The energy in the theater was magical and the crowd dressed up accordingly. There was plenty of red lipstick, sparkly dresses, and countless patrons wearing hats, coats, and bags all adorned with Betty Boop’s recognizable face; I couldn’t help but latch onto other people’s excitement.

I was struck by how utterly expensive the show looked from the moment that the curtain rose. Her face alone had packed the house - I don’t think the musical’s plot had even been released prior. In Betty’s world, everything is black and white. This is artfully acheived through costumes and sets all colored in grayscale. There are projections that give off cartoonish reactions and sound effects, and this, shockingly, never feels cheesy.

The first song was a whirlwind and one of the most astonishing opening numbers I’ve seen in a long time. It reminded me of old-school musical theater with multiple tap dance breaks, costume changes, glitz, glamour – you name it! Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray) choreographed the show and has created some of the most iconic dance numbers seen in the 21st century.

Jasmine Amy Rogers was the perfect Betty: a dream casting if I’ve ever seen one! Her voice is cartoonish, but not annoying, and all of the mannerisms read perfectly. Her singing voice and acting abilities are both top notch and sell the performance without feeling forced. Rogers’ perfomance reminded me of Kristin Chenoweth’s Tony Award winning role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, where she, too, captured an animated character astonishly well. Everytime Jasmine was on stage, I couldn’t look away. I also loved that they casted a black woman as Betty since she was inspired by a real black woman, Esther Jones, before she was whitewashed.

For an opening night performance, I was shocked by how tight the show already was. There were a couple line flubs here and there but the costume changes, choreography, and lighting cues all went off without a hitch.

The story itself is the classic “fish out of water” tale. Betty comes to our world via an invention created by her scientist grandfather, Grampy. She realizes she’s a star here and becomes an instant celebrity. While the story doesn’t begin on a realistic note, it still seemed odd to me that people automatically flocked to her once she arrived in our colorful world.

Betty meets a boy, Dwayne, soon after arriving in New York City, and they have one of those classic Broadway love stories. There are jokes about how men only chase her in her shorts, but she never falls in love. Jokes like this were funny and delivered well, but I couldn’t commend them for their validity since they often lacked context. There’s a lot of time spent with other characters and everytime they were on stage I was just waiting for Betty to come back. They used a puppeteer to operate Betty’s dog, Pudgy, which I thought was a strong choice - it added to the cartoonish element and also provided some comic relief!

There was a character named Valentina who was in our world, someone Grampy fell in love with 40 years prior. When Grampy used the machine to retrieve Betty, he also looked for this woman. We eventually get their backstory (kind of), but it came so late that I wasted most of the musical wondering who she was and why so much time was being spent on her, and it didn’t really feel like it ever paid off.

The act break number was top-tier and had the energy that I hoped for that night - it was jazzy with Betty Boop front and center. I appreciated the feminist lens that the musical took. She’s a strong woman who runs the show; she knows who she is and will stand up for herself and others.

The production’s music was created by David Foster, and I was humming it as I left the theater. I was worried the music might lean a bit more pop (since that’s how Broadway is leaning these days), so I was pleasantly surprised to be met with traditional Broadway styles.

Boop! The Betty Boop Musical did a lot of things right. I only saw it on opening night, so I know the show I saw is not the one it will remain to be. There’s a lot of potential there, and the incredible castruly gave it their all for every second that they were on the stage. The creative team behind the production deserves all the accolades for the immersive, but not hokey, world they created on stage. I just hope they can iron out some contextual elements to make the story a bit more accessible to those who have never been exposed to this world of characters before. If they fail to do this, I can see this losing a lot of audience members.

The production will remain in Chicago until December 24th. I’m excited to hear about how this show will morph and change with time - I’m rooting for it! You can tell a lot of love and care went into the creation of this musical, and I for one am excited to see Jasmine Amy Rogers dominate a Broadway stage.