Broads
Presumably building on the successes of such shows as “Nunsense”, and Menopause the Musical”, book writer Jennie Fahn and composer/lyricist Joe Symon have put together a show called Broads which features four Broadway stars, a lot of corny jokes, some ok songs, and a lot of energy. Fahn said she wrote this to celebrate the women she met in her grandmother’s retirement home. The theatre says the show has the largest presale of any show that ever played the El Portal. Most likely this is due more to the cast involved than any word of mouth about the show.
The four stars involved are Ivonne Coll, Leslie Esterbrook, June Gable and Barbara Niles. All these “broads” have extensive Broadway credits. The singers gave it their all and didn’t pull back from the tired jokes but took the good with the bad like good sports and pros that they are. They looked and sounded great. They had great clothes by Shon LeBlanc. Their choreographer was the ubiquitous Kay Cole and the equally ubiquitous Jules Aaron was the director. They even had a little offstage help with the voiceover talents of Kay Ballard and Shecky Greene who provided the funniest dialogue of the evening. The fault was in t he lame writing and in the casting. These ladies are not over the hill except by Hollywood standards but certainly they could each pull their weight in a Broadway show. They just weren’t “old broads”. I am sure this show will find an audience. One audience member I spoke to couldn’t wait to come again. To each his own. Broads plays at the El Portal until April 4th.