Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Sat, March 2, 2pm
With jukebox musicals and lame movie adaptations littering the Broadway, I really wanted to like Hands On A Hardbody, an American musical with an original score and intriguing concept. Sadly, I found it rife with white trash stereotypes and a lukewarm pay-off.
The musical is based on the similarly titled, award-winning documentary chronicling an endurance competition in which contestants stand with one hand on the prize, a shiny red truck. The last man standing – literally – wins. Doesn’t exactly shout “Make me a Musical!” does it?
I don’t necessarily have an issue with the source material. I mean, Sondheim routinely manages to coerce masterworks out of seemingly impenetrable topics. But I don’t think the creators of Hardbody found the hook necessary to make this material sing. And let’s face it, two-and-a-half hours of watching people standing around a truck is a lot to ask of any audience.
The internet chat boards have compared Hardbody to A Chorus Line, another high concept show low on plot. The difference, though, is there is inherent action at a dance audition. In Hardbody, the writers, director and choreographer have to create forward momentum from a static activity.
I admit the truck-ography is impressive, but after about 20 minutes the novelty had definitely worn off. We might as well have been at the Javits for the Auto Show.
Not that there aren’t moments of inspiration amongst the white trash clichés. Keala Settle raises the roof with a Stomp-inspired Gospel number. But even this is a triumph of staging rather than story-telling, since we’ve already learned everything we need to know about her character from previous book scenes. Not to mention that technically, every contestant should have been disqualified since their hands all leave the truck during the drumming.
I realize the other characters are based on real life contestants, but their stories are mind-numbingly familiar: the meet-cute young couple who yearn to begin thrilling new lives in LA, the trashy bimbo trying to go straight, the ex-military guy who wants to win and make his son proud, the injured, out-of-work older guy with the pestering wife...and on and on and on. Sure, you want to stay true to the story, but this isn’t a documentary, it’s a Broadway musical.
The score is a mixed bag of country-inspired tunes. But like the show, the lyrics are riddled with clichés and rhymes you can spot a mile away.
There might be a show lurking somewhere amidst all these good ol' boys and girls, but I think it’s a case of re-writing and re-conceptualizing the entire show which, I’m sure, ain’t gonna’ happen.
Just off the top of my head, a few of my issues with the show's current musical structure:
- The opening sets us up to believe this is going to be Benny’s (Hunter Foster) story, then flips it to J D (Keith Carradine) after getting rid of Benny halfway through the second act.
- Writing that trades on stereotypes to fill in characterization (the soldier, the white trash old lady, et al).
- Wasting time giving side character’s full songs when a verse or part of a shared song (to give a feeling of community) would do.
- Repetitive choreography. Though I realize there are only so many different ways to dance around a truck without taking your hand off of it.
- And a personal staging pet peeve, the slow motion march to connote a flashback to war. Just a bit too obvious given the trite sentiments of the song it’s set to. As soon as the chorus got into silhouetted position, I was rolling my eyes.
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