Musical Monday: Chick Flick the Musical

Last month I was able to see Chick Flick the Musical Off-Broadway before it closed. It acknowledged and called out just about all of the tropes we expect in these movies while telling the story of four middle aged friends having a girls’ movie night. I am a fan of a good chick flick, which I think has a less derogatory feeling than it likely did when people first started using it. The best thing about a chick flick is that it usually doesn’t make you think too much and is over quickly with some laughs and some heart. Chick Flick? It was over quickly but while there were some laughs, it didn’t have much heart.

My favorite thing about the show was the set design, especially the set before the show started. The entire wall was covered with framed paintings that were iconic movie posters except all of the actual movie titles read “Chick Flick.” There were Chick Flick versions of You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Dreamgirls, The Notebook, The Holiday, Love Actually, and probably more than 50 or 60 total. It was a ton of fun trying to guess which movies we recognized. Also, as a song played, the picture would light up if the song was featured in that movie. It was one of the most fun, creative ways I’ve seen to entertain the audience before a show.

Saying my favorite thing about the show being something before the show started, while true, admittedly makes it sound like I didn’t think this show had any redeemable qualities. That’s not true. There were some fun songs that got laughs including “What Would Meryl (Streep) Do” and “Subtext,” which talked about just how often things go unsaid in those movies. There was also a really impressive breadth of lines stripped from chick flicks. My favorite moment referring the actual movies was a sequence when the characters noted the specific minutes and seconds montages took in some iconic movies like Legally Blonde and Pretty Woman—change happens pretty quick in the movies. It was really funny.

The biggest issue with Chick Flick was that even though there were funny moments, there was never any time to breathe. Either the characters were yelling about love, yelling about drinking, singing about drinking or love, or doing some combination therein. The really funny moments felt like they were melded instantly into other moments that didn’t land as well. The show was manic and continuous. That works in a lot of shows, but without time to breathe, it caused some other jokes I might have enjoyed to feel lost. This frantic nature also meant you never really had time to feel for any of the characters—any time you thought you might feel for one of the characters, they were moving on to another joke.

Chick Flick the Musical worked to remind me that I appreciate a lot of chick flicks. I don’t like them because they’re per se good, but I like them because they’re often formulaic and make you feel good a lot of the time. I can’t tell you the plot of most of them, and that doesn’t matter. The musical was fun at times, but just like a lot of the movies for which it is named, it wasn’t terribly memorable.