NEW YORK, NY.- Its 2024, and Huey Lewis is having a moment. Just let that sink in.
Lewis was an unexpected highlight of the recent Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, about the star-studded 1985 session where We Are the World was recorded. An everyman rocker, Lewis was amazed (and still is) that he was rubbing elbows with Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen. He even got to sing the part originally intended for Prince.
Now comes the new Broadway show The Heart of Rock and Roll, which is not so much a Huey Lewis (and the News) musical as the Huey Lewis of musicals: not taking itself too seriously, doing what it does well, and just happy to be on Broadway, keeping company with starrier productions.
Like most jukeboxes, The Heart of Rock and Roll shoehorns big hits, including The Power of Love and Stuck With You, with lesser-known tracks into a plot generic enough to accommodate them.
Set in 1987, Jonathan A. Abrams book, based on a story by Tyler Mitchell and Abrams, centers on Bobby (Corey Cott, from the underrated Bandstand), an employee at an ailing cardboard box manufacturer, Stone Inc., in Milwaukee. Bobby works on the assembly line, but he really wants to join the sales department so he can Be Someone, as the shows new song puts it. Wait, no, maybe what he really wants is to rock out with his old band, the Loop. Bobby might sing Its Hip to Be Square, but deep down, does he really believe it?
By now you might have noticed that dreams play a big part in The Heart of Rock and Roll. There are numerous references to chasing the dream, making it come true and living it, but also giving it up. Sentimentality is often ladled out, along with cliches. And Bobby, whose sole personality trait appears to be good guy, carries more than his share of both he hears the fateful siren call one last show and lugs emotional baggage related to his old man. At least Cott gives Bobby a laid-back charm thats not unlike Lewis own, along with his emotional big Act II aria, The Only One.
Fortunately, there is also enough good-natured goofball humor to keep Gordon Greenbergs production from sinking into cloying goo. Much of the levity comes from amusing supporting characters, starting with Bobbys love interest and his boss daughter, Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz, a recent Glinda in Wicked). She is an uber-dork with a fondness for spreadsheets, and Kurtzs Cassandra is a daffy delight that recalls Annaleigh Ashfords performance in Kinky Boots.
That is not the only time The Heart of Rock and Roll brings to mind that hit, which is also set at a factory. Like Jerry Mitchells in the earlier show, Lorin Latarros high-energy choreography here makes clever use of props, having employees slide on cardboard sheets and deploying the ensemble in a number that involves jumping on Bubble Wrap.
That scene takes place at a packaging convention, where Stone Inc. is trying to drum up business. For obscure reasons, the companys sensible head of human resources, Roz (a wonderfully droll Tamika Lawrence), has tagged along. She, too, had to make a life-changing decision once and its a good thing, Roz dryly quips, because otherwise I never would have found the unbridled joy of human resources. (This sets up the best plot twist, which comes at the very end.)
Naturally, nice Midwesterners need a wicked antagonist, preferably of the putting-on-airs kind (a big no-no in the Huey Lewis universe). And here the show over-delivers thanks to loose-limbed physical-comedy ace Billy Harrigan Tighe and his memorable performance as Tucker, Cassandras cocky finance-bro ex. In the number Give Me the Keys (And Ill Drive You Crazy), he and his old Princeton a cappella group, the Undertones, invite Cassandra for a ride in a pretend car. The moment when Kurtz mimes opening the door and Tighe mimes rolling down the window is a strong contender for single funniest scene of the Broadway spring.
While the dialogue has occasional pop, its the performances that keep the show rolling, along with Greenberg and Latarros fast-paced, resourceful staging. Bobbys I Want a New Drug, for example, is an economical summary of why many men join rock bands: In his hotel room at the convention, just as he pulls out his beloved guitar, handling it like a holy relic, three women magically emerge from inside the bed in a nifty touch, their outfits are stylized representations of Bobbys axe. (The costumes are by Jen Caprio.)
The Heart of Rock and Roll is not going to be the subject of think pieces and graduate theses, but its easygoing good spirits are bolstered by solid craftsmanship, and itd be silly to turn up our noses at that. Have a good time, Huey Lewis once sang, wisely quoting Curtis Mayfield. Cause its all right.
The Heart of Rock and RollAt the James Earl Jones Theater, Manhattan; heartofrocknrollbway.com. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.