Kathy Lee Gifford dedicated many years to following and researching the exploits of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. During that time, she even wrote a book about her.
And on Thursday she debuted the Broadway play Scandalous to very uncomplimentary reviews.
Steven Suskin at Variety wrote:
"Scandalous" is another big-budget, evangelist-with-feet-of-clay tale from the hinterlands, and despite various prior incarnations, it looks woefully out of place on a Broadway stage."
Charles Isherwood of New York Times:
"Broadway jackals suspicious of Ms. Gifford's bona fides were surely hoping for an epoch-making turkey in time for Thanksgiving. Sorry, guys. 'Scandalous' isn't so much scandalously bad as it is generic and dull."
Newsday wrote:
"It's also not interesting, alas, at least not interesting enough to sustain 2 1/2 hours of fast-forward storytelling and inspirational songs that almost always end in throbbing climax."
David Cote of Time Out New York:
"I have seen worse shows than 'Scandalous' ('Good Vibrations' and 'The Pirate Queen' were more painful to sit through), but few as wild-eyed and zealously wrongheaded. Carolee Carmello's strident, belt-first-ask-questions-later approach to McPherson leaves very little room for subtlety or growth. David Pomeranz and David Friedman's score is a facile pastiche of gospel, jazz and show tunes further weakened by Gifford's flat, often corny lyrics."
Very few critics gave Gifford's new Broadway musical much of a look, and if so, that look was not good.
Scandalous is based on the life of Aimee Semple McPherso--a Pentecostal evangelist in the early 1900s who was known for her lively sermons but more so for her drug addiction, romantic affairs and her kidnapping.
© 2024 Classicalite All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
