Tuesday, April 14, 1998
One spicy act leads to another
THEATER: ‘Girlworld’ acts as a musical parody of Spice Girls,
underlying superficiality of their fans
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Spice Girls are an easy target. Their pouty expressions,
platform shoes and Seven Dwarfs-like nicknames are a "Saturday
Night Live" sketch waiting to happen. Emerald Rain Productions, the
first theater company to see the peppy fivesome as rock opera
fodder, could have taken this route and made a timely, funny
musical with about as much staying power as the Girls
themselves.
Instead they came up with "Girlworld." Currently running at the
LACE Gallery in Hollywood, the musical is timely and funny, but
goes beyond the obvious bids for laughs – i.e. bare midriffs and
bubble gum harmonies – and explores just what sort of world could
create such a cultural monster.
Emerald Rain, composed almost entirely of UCLA students and
alumni, bills "Girlworld" as "a musical parody of the Spice Girls,"
but from the minute three women clad in scuba gear slither onto a
dark stage to the band’s loud, ominous bass, we know this
production is far too surreal for, say, Baby Spice to
comprehend.
The initial chaos may provoke a few winces of "uh oh,
performance art," but soon gives way to intelligent, poetic satire.
The setting is Los Angeles, 1999, in blaring Technicolor.
Businessman Mr. Staples (Michael Fitzgerald, who doubles as
director) is looking for a gimmick to market his theme park.
"What," he asks, "will attract white teenage girls to a depressed
downtown commercial area?"
Enter the Paper sisters, a.k.a the Spice Angels. Materializing
seemingly from thin air (as gimmicks often do), the trio is so
naive it’s hard to believe they’re human. Which, well, they aren’t
exactly, seeing as how they crawled out of the Pacific Ocean and
are of ambiguous age, language and talent.
But they can perform cacophonous choreography in lingerie, so
they’re a marketing dream. No one cares who they are. No one
bothers to ask. Yet writer Dominic Mah has managed to capture the
ironies of their icon status while maintaining three distinct,
cathartic characters.
Illyana (Nina Cho) lives up to her nomenclature as Bitter Spice,
whose crusade for world peace and other abstract causes gets lost
in the drone of Bel Air parties. Justifiably angsty and
disillusioned, she discovers it’s hard to be taken seriously while
wearing a mini back pack. Cho’s deadpan delivery of Illyana’s
unwitting bluntness, spiced with occasional bouts of borderline
insanity, wins both laughs and sympathy.
The embodiment of an eating disorder, Natasha Paper (Rachel
Stolte) dresses in red and weds Mr. Staples, who, when the girls
finally discover his sinister intents – a "Chinatown"-esque water
disaster – dumps her for a robotic facsimile.
But as Nadia, Jessica Neighbor gets the juiciest role and
probably does the most with it. "Cute, constantly sauced Angel," as
she is dubbed, cannot say more than "bluh" unless she has an
alcoholic beverage in hand. Even more than her sisters, she longs
to trade her feather boa-ed artifice for the comfort of her watery
birthplace.
Neighbor’s bluesy belt adds to her lament and is certainly the
vocal highlight of the show. The music in "Girlworld" is decidedly
un-spicy, thank god. Rather, it is spicy, but not Spicy. Musicians
Mah, Neighbor, Sam Dorman and Gaby Alter have wisely skipped the
catchy girl raps and shallow-voiced harmonies. The songs range from
slow, emotive rock to quasi-punk and ska.
And rather than such lyrical gems as "if you wanna be my lover,
you gotta get with my friends," they weave tender moments of
love-among-the-apocalyptic-Disney-esque-ruins and biting satire.
The latter is epitomized in "Dirty Foreigners," an unofficial water
park anthem that proclaims "They come and go like a pain, work for
minimum wage … Soon I won’t be able to read the signs." This,
after an electronic voice dictates, "You must be taller than
Nadia’s arm to enter the House of Femme Fatales."
The soulful closing number, "Ghost Town," sums up a city where
people are scrambling for connections and fighting each other every
step of the way.
But unfortunately, most of these observations come from
purchasing Emerald Rain’s CD, on sale for a well-deserved 10 bucks
in the lobby. Friday’s premiere was plagued with technical
problems, namely a screechy mike and an over-amped band. Loud
back-up may work at a rock concert, but audible lyrics are crucial
to deciphering musical theater. And while a few (the Spice Angels
and ensemble member Cameron Russell) managed to hold their own,
others, like the softer-voiced Fitzgerald, were lost. Still others
were occasionally flat, depriving otherwise beautiful harmonies of
their silky quality.
The production must iron out several kinks before living up to
its potential as a clever, musical slice of magical realism. While
the lengthy first act passes quickly, the beginning of the second
act is bogged down with dense dialogue and a muddled plot as the
rainbow-hued characters blend to grayish brown. Frequently, a lot
is happening on the small stage and "Girlworld" walks the fine line
between well-paced hustle and bustle and dizzying confusion.
The weighty issues the show touches upon – everything from
classism to paparazzi power – demand a tighter format, a second
viewing, or perhaps both. But it is a youthful, energetic show
(catering to a refreshingly youthful, energetic opening night
audience) saturated with promise.
Bright, "Rent"-reminiscent costumes and an extremely strong
ensemble – especially the lithe Paul Kim and the versatile Beatrice
Thomas – make the musical fun even when it’s confusing. Scathing
jabs at Los Angeles (when the city is flooded, hey, at least it’s
easy to find parking) and at least one Bruin inside joke (a passing
reference to URL) evoke a hometown love-hate relationship.
Which is ultimately what people have with the Spice Girls. They
are the embodiment of our culture at its most superficial, its most
capitalistic. But they possess a magnetic imitative quality,
whether the result of admiration or mockery.
A subtle water motif flows through the show, from the insane
asylum song, "Drowning Recipe," to the theme park’s tsunami of an
exit. Ultimately, one can’t help but make the parallel: the Spice
Girls and El Nino. No one knows exactly what they are or how they
got here. Everyone resents them but everyone talks about them.
Their present manifestations are fleeting, but remember, El Nino as
an ocean current has been around for eons. Pet rocks, pogs, Right
Said Fred – who knows what sordid past lives the Spice Girls
led?
The secret is entrenched somewhere within this strange
girlworld.
THEATER: "Girlworld" runs at the LACE Gallery, 6522 Hollywood
Blvd., through April 18. From April 24 to May 9, it will play at
the Hudson Avenue Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. Tickets are $10.
For more information, call (310) 712-7018 or visit
rainpro@yahoo.com.