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Monday, February 3, 2025

REVIEW: CHARM OF PAPER MILL'S 80s ROM-COM "MYSTIC PIZZA" TAKES BACKSEAT TO MUSIC & SOUND

 

By Ruth Ross

If you love music from the 80s and 90s, you’re going to love Mystic Pizza, the new musical now onstage at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, but if you’re a fan of the 1988 romantic comic drama on which the musical is based, perhaps not so much.

While the book by Sandy Rustin faithfully follows the screenplay of the 1988 small-budget film of the same name, the 20 songs—megahits from the 80s and 90s recorded (and sometimes written) by Cyndi Lauper, John Cougar Mellencamp, Wilson Phillips, The Bangles and others—often feel tacked on, not organic as in traditional American musicals. They may relate to the situation or topic at hand but don’t necessarily reflect the emotions of the characters who sing them. (One example is “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”; I have no idea what that lyric had to do with anything onstage.) In addition, there are very few quiet moments in the play other than one sister’s telling her younger, more insecure sibling that her “True colors are beautiful/Like a rainbow” by warbling the eponymous song by Cyndi Lauper, which soon turns into a rousing anthem when the entire cast joins in!

The plot of Mystic Pizza follows the lives and loves of three young Portuguese American waitresses in a Connecticut town called Mystic. For sexy Daisy Arujo; her sensible, more bookish little sister Kat; and their wisecracking friend Jojo, the summer after high school is one they'll never forget. Slinging pizza at a local restaurant, the three girls share their plans to escape the expectations of their families and small town that involve getting married, raising a family, and work shucking oysters, instead of following their personal hopes and dreams for a fulfilling future. Of course, matters are complicated by members of the opposite sex: Jojo’s fisherman/rocker fiancé Bill, whom she jilts at the altar with an overwhelming case of cold feet; Daisy’s rich suitor, Charles Gordon Windsor, Jr., whose family will not accept a “townie”; and Kat’s love interest, the older, married architect Tim Travers, with whom she shares a love of astronomy—and little else. ( Above left: Diánna Giuletti, Krystina Alabado and Alaina Anderson)

Casey Hushion’s direction maintains the inexorable action and elicits energetic, and often over-the-top performances from her six main characters (e.g., Jojo’s seemingly constant sexual gyrating), but often the actors shouted the dialogue, instead of conversing more naturally. The decibel level rose so high during the musical numbers that it was often difficult to discern the words over the melody. Sound designer Matt Kraus should take his decibel meter into the audience during a performance to get a true idea of the noise level there. At times, it made my ears hurt.

Krystina Alabado (Daisy Arujo), Alaina Anderson (Katherine “Kat” Arujo), Diánna Giuletti (Josephine “Jojo” Barbosa) ably convey the palpable yearning experienced by young women with little education in the late 1980s. Sexy Daisy is overshadowed by her smarter, younger sister Kat, who has won a partial scholarship to Yale University where she will study astronomy with an eye to becoming an aerospace engineer. Daisy’s confidence crumbles when she overhears her mother call her stupid, and she chafes at the prospect of working as a secretary in a local law firm. Meanwhile, Jojo dreams of opening her own business—perhaps a national chain of Mystic Pizzas—before, or while raising, a family if only Leona Silvia, the flinty, no-nonsense owner of the pizzeria where they work (played by a splendid Jennifer Fouché) will give her the mystical ingredient that makes her pizza so good!

As Daisy’s “beau,” the callow Charlie, Vincent Michael is prep personified; however, his romantic feelings for this girl so different from his affluent background feel unconvincing. F. Michael Haynie (right, with Giuletti) has little to do, emotionally, as the fisherman betrothed to and jilted by Jojo; with little-to-no dialogue revealing his feelings, he mostly walks around the stage, strums a guitar in a rock band at the local club, and grabs Jojo for a smooch whenever he can. In contrast, Ben Fankhauser’s portrayal of the married architect Tim feels natural; his moments with Kat (below, left) are more intellectual than physical, as would behoove a married man, and their tenderness is winning and wistful given the inevitable outcome of their romance.

The other 12 members of the cast play a myriad of lesser characters, many of whom are more cartoonish than real; James Hindman as the Priest and the television dining critic Fireside Gourmet are two especially egregious examples.

As for most, if not all, Paper Mill Playhouse presentations, production values are topnotch. Nate Bertone’s set evokes a small waterfront town; piers, tables, a bed and couches smoothly moved on and offstage signify changes in venues. Costume designer Jen Caprio has adorned the cast in 1980’s attire—jeans, colorful boots, big hair—appropriate to each character’s personality and station in life. Ryan J. O’Gara’s lighting signifies the passage of time and place, while Connor Gallagher’s choreography, while not especially inventive, effectively keeps the cast moving around the stage in various stages of exuberance. Kristin Stowell’s direction of the musicians stationed at the rear of the stage tended to overshadow the singers so that, had I not known the lyrics of most of the songs, they would have been difficult to hear.

The original Mystic Pizza, which I confess I have not seen, appears to have been a charming, little movie about three nonentities who dream big. Variety called it “a deftly told coming-of-age story about three young femmes as they explore their different destinies, mostly through romance. [I]t's genuine and moving, with enough edge to impress contemporary audiences."

This musical version, which had its world premiere at the Ogunquit Playhouse in the Fall of 2021, involved many people associated with the current production. Perhaps, if more attention is paid to the decibel level of the spoken dialogue and musical numbers, Mystic Pizza will be a critical success. I am certain that, given the familiar music, young, modern theatergoers will love it; the immediate standing ovation by the youthful audience—not to mention the hearty applause after every musical number—attests to its success. Yet, somehow, the missing charm so necessary for the story of a trio of underdogs leaves me wishing for a better, more moving theatrical experience.

Mystic Pizza will be performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, through February 23. There are mentions of sex and some rough language, so think about bringing the younger kids to see the show. Teenagers and up will like the music and relationships. For information and tickets, call the box office at 973.376. 7676 or visit www.PaperMill.org online.

Photos by Jeremy Daniel.