‘BOOP! The Musical:’ Betty Comes To Spectacular, Technicolor Life in Dazzling New Production

Certain misguided critics (and that one in particular) are gushing over a monumental mess of a musical, loosely based on a TV series, that just hit Broadway — with a thud. Yet some of those same journos (yes, that one again) have slighted a truly fabulous new production that deserves to be praised: one with actual original songs, a clever concept—not desperate to be hip and meta—and two star making central performances. One that should be the sleeper smash of the season.

I will admit I went into BOOP! The Musical wondering how a cartoon character that first appeared in a short in 1930 could be brought to life in 2025 with any real resonance. I understand that Boop-mania continues to this day, with popular merchandise being sold everywhere (just step into any Manhattan souvenir shop and you will find something Boopish) but how to parlay that into a Broadway show did pique my curiosity.

My intro to Betty was via my father waxing nostalgic about her when I was super young. I just assumed she was a movie star. To this day, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one of the 90 animated films she was featured in.  Created by Max Fleischer and designed by Grim Natwick, Betty Boop was a jazz age flapper girl, seemingly innocent yet sophisticated and confident. And with sex appeal, which was, of course, muted in the mid ‘30s by the Catholic-led Hays Office that ran roughshod over all American films, arguably, until the 1960s.

Syndication continued the success of the series and, especially, the character, voiced by Mae Questel from 1931 to 1939. Questel returned for a cameo in Robert Zemeckis’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit? feature in 1988. A 1993 animated film with Bernadette Peters as Betty was planned and abandoned. And a feature was announced a decade ago, yet nothing has come of it.

But now, director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, La Cage aux Folles revival), book writer Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone, The Prom), composer David Foster (Oscar-nominated thrice) and lyricist Susan Birkenhead (Jelly’s Last Jam, Triumph of Love) have collaborated on the least likely idea for a musical this season (okay, maybe, add to it the brilliant and misunderstood, Swept Away) that is most winning, discovering ingenious and clever ways to bring Betty to technicolor and contemporary life without straining to be trendy or cool or woke or meta, but simply by allowing Betty to Back to the Future into today’s today. The musical also has some timely things to say about our current society and misguided values—without making it too obvious –and borrowing generously from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

Betty (Jasmine Amy Rogers) lives in her uber-successful black-and-white world making her shorts—a world that exists expressly for her. But Betty is exhausted and all famed-out. Her dream is to live a normal existence–whatever that means–and her Grampy (Stephen DeRosa)) has invented a time machine called the “trans-dimensional-tempus-locus-actuating-electro-ambulator.” You see where this is going.

Our Miss Boop is transported to technicolor 2025 New York City, smack dab in the middle of…Comic Con! In NYC she befriends a blue-eyed boy beauty named Dwayne (Ainsley Melham), his young artist cousin Trisha (Angelica Hale) and Carol (Anastasia McCleskey), a mayoral campaign manager, who is sort of a mother to Dwayne and Carol. Dwayne is a jazz musician-wannabe (shades of La La Land), and Betty almost immediately falls for him. And that’s just Act One. I will leave the rest of the plot alone; suffice to say it’s stuffed—overstuffed really with a lot of winds and detours.

But it’s almost always entertaining thanks to the cracker jack cast beginning with Rogers who is absolutely fabulous. She manages to mine the humanity in the initially one-dimensional figure and, consequently, inspires others to act accordingly. She’s a feminist but is also allowed to fall head over heels in love. And watching her realize Betty’s power is a joy.

Melham is a find as well. He’s charming, good looking and a nuanced actor to boot. And both Rogers and Melham have great comic chops and incredible vocal range.

Among the terrific ensemble members is a scene-stealing Erich Bergen, as a deliciously crooked mayoral candidate, who has the show stopping “Take it to the Next Level,” that brings down the house. (The parallels with the current state of politics in NYC is staggering).

Ricky Schroeder and Aubie Merrylees are also a treat to watch as filmmakers in Betty’s world who are secretly crushing on one another.

Mitchell’s tap-heavy choreography is splendid. And the tech aspects are top notch, beginning with David Rockwell’s extraordinary scenic design as well as the wonderful costumes by Gregg Barnes and Philip S. Rosenberg’s dazzling lighting design.

BOOP! is not perfect. It has several sequences that could have used scissors, and the show would benefit from a lot less Grampy, Pudgy (sorry, puppet canine lovers) and, even Trisha. It also strains a bit too hard to be family friendly.

But when Rogers is onstage as Betty (which is most of the time), along with Melham’s Dwayne, the show soars. It might very well surprise by picking up a slew of deserved Tony nominations!

Boop! The Musical is currently playing at the Broadhurst Theater, NYC

For tickets: boopthemusical.com