The Broadway Theatre Review: Tammy Faye – The Musical
By Ross
So right off the bat, watching on the very night that Tammy Faye, the new musical, announced it was closing in a few weeks after a slew of negative reviews, months and months before most would have predicted when it was first announced, the show isn’t all bad. It definitely has some structural problems, a few terribly off-putting songs, and some misplaced moments, but it isn’t a runny mess. For one, it has a performance at its center that is forever brilliant and shines as brightly as the real Tammy Faye would have wanted. Katie Brayben (West End’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; Netflix’s “Queen Charlotte“) is a true musical theatre star, radiating life and musical power as dynamic as anyone could have hoped for, delivering numbers in ways far superior to the actual songs given, although a few of them are quite catchy.
Brayben is reprising her starring role from when this new musical first premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London in the fall of 2022, and she remains as big and powerful as she was back then. The show since that first run has improved over time, fine-tuning itself into a much sharper vehicle. It was, and still is a big, wild ride, delivering humor and compassion inside the sordid tale of this unforgettable entertainer who reveled in the spotlight but also found honor and engagement in a way few others managed. I still can’t say that I love or support the woman behind the makeup, nor the show, but, as unraveled here inside the newly reopened Palace Theatre, there are many notable things she did inside that religious television show that truly did effect some sort of change, many of them I wasn’t quite aware of until the film and this musical displayed them.
Composed by Sir Elton John (The Lion King; Billy Elliot the Musical), with lyrics by Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears (Tales of the City), and a book by James Graham (Ink; Best of Enemies), the view of all those small television screens that make up the background (awkwardly) is wide and expansive, and no wonder. Her story is as big as her persona and as complicated as their messy financials. There’s a drama of biblical proportions spinning inside this messiness that spans decades and is filled to the rim with greed, sexuality, and destructive tendencies, by herself and her husband, Jim Baker, played with playful precision by Christian Borle (Broadway’s Some Like it Hot!). So much to pick your way through, and so little time (even though the show ran almost 3hrs long).
Played to the emotional hilt by the extremely talented Brayben, Tammy is the true star of this epic white-clad makeup-running musical, and nothing else comes really close, even though she is surrounded by strong performers all around. Brayben shatters glass ceilings as this woman with an honest-to-God truth and vulnerability that is both wisely epic and smartly simple. And it’s clear from the first interaction with her proctologist (Max Gordon Moore) that this unmasking is going to be deliberate, yet also funny, while attempting to find the deliciously emotional undercurrent that brought her out into the world before us, then basically threw her away once the shimmer on her lips and eyes had been smudged and washed away in the scandalous rain. She’s presented here as an innocent but also a clever, determined woman, who believes in God and love in a way most of these sordid evangelists can only dream of appearing. From puppet lady to trailblazer to being sidelined by the greed of all around her, including her own, Brayben finds a core that we can get behind for the most part, and with those soaring vocals, we truly are hooked on her.
Directed with a stumbling determined tone by Rupert Goold (Almeida/West End/Broadway’s King Charles III; Ink), Tammy Faye tries its best to rise up strong on the uneven modern TV box squared set, designed with a distorted visual intention by Bunny Christie (West End/Broadway’s Company), backed by energetic Hollywood lighting by Neil Austin (West End/Broadway’s Leopoldstadt), and a shaky sound design by Nick Lidster for Autograph (Broadway’s Cabaret). The sometimes vibrant and sometimes awkward video design by Finn Ross (Almeida/Broadway’s American Psycho), matched with the song and dance elements delivers an insane but enjoyable level of campiness that shifts and swirls around the subjects with detailed determination. It feels retro and silly all at the same time, and distorted when the video goes wider than those 12-inch squares. We watch with a wide-eyed sense of amusement, as Brayben’s Tammy guides us through, a bit haphazardly, from the young woman who so believes in Jim to the glossy tv-celebrity we all know and, well, sorta love, but in an oddly angled and complicated kind of way.
The other part that needs to be unpacked is more of a question than a statement. Would this highly satirical musical, overflowing with camp and ridiculousness, be taken in differently if the American election from earlier this month had turned out differently? Could we laugh at the jokes and satirical stabs this musical makes on the Evangelicals’ desire to change America by digging deep and with such determination into politics, specifically bringing God back into the White House, this time with the persona of Ronald Reagan, portrayed with a strong intent for humor by Ian Lassiter (Broadway’s King Lear)? Those moments now, after that horrid orange monster is being returned to the White House, cast a very different light on the satire, and shifted the show to a much darker place. In a way, those framings re-ignited the anger I have felt ever since election day, hitting and triggering me in ways far outside of the story. I’m sure the intent was to create a very different energy in those satirical moments, and it did reorganize them in ways that I’m guessing, the writers could never have predicted, nor have wanted.
As Billy Graham, played smoothly by Mark Evans (Broadway’s Mrs. Doubtfire) and all those other jealous men begin to circle about, singing and dancing in that first number, “It’s the Light of the World“, the energy feels strong and hopeful, but slowly, those preachers shift into something far more dark and disturbing. Yet, thanks to some big moves by choreographer Lynne Page (West End’s Funny Girl), the musical as a whole flaps on some glittering problematic angel wings. It’s satirically funny, for the most part, but it seems to be trying to take a bite out of every pie available to them. The rival evangelicals, all scheming religiously around the TV screen boxes, try their best to wrestle control, both of the audiences watching their TVs and the musical itself. Still, the fall from grace that we know is coming keeps us tuned in, as does Brayben’s Tammy, yet some of those framings get lost in the Evangelical battle for center stage.
The Pope and network boss Ted Turner, both portrayed by Andy Taylor (Broadway’s Moon Over Buffalo) make some less-than-powerful appearances, and we cringe as we watch politics become part of the problematic parcel, all dressed in some wonderfully over-the-top 1970s consuming by Katrina Lindsay (West End/Broadway’s Harry Potter…). The Pope in a box talking with the other two about the state of religion in America is unrequited, and more problematic than proficient. Standing just off center is the scheming Jimmy Swaggart (Lassiter) and Pat Robertson (Taylor) on disturbing display, but the true villain of this musical is the diabolical Jerry Falwell, played to the vocal nines by Michael Cerveris (Broadway’s Fun Home; Sweeney Todd) that sneers his way center stage yet commands the most attention with his vocal power in one pretty mediocre song in Act One, and a much better one in Act Two.
It’s a devilish creation, his villain, but one that ultimately highlights many of the show’s sordid weaknesses. When the show premiered in London, one wondered if he was the secondary lead or was it Tammy Faye’s husband, played by Borle? But in the Broadway reforming, the show has found its core in Brayben’s Tammy Faye and designated these other two as pure secondary roles to the shining star at its core. Cerveris does a fine job playing the villain and his voice proclaims it powerfully every chance it gets, but his role stays solidly in the shadows, and never really feels part of the interpersonal dynamic. His damnation feels personal yet undefined, etched in dogmatic misogyny that lies just underneath his fire and brimstone morality reframing that keeps his divisive preaching off balance and separate.
Another complication is that Borle’s problematic role still falters in its unclear and undefined moral qualities. It still feels like there should be more, unpacking some of his inner demons that ultimately bring about the whole collapse. As it stands, he only shows up here and there in his crisp white suit fulfilling his partnering duties clumsily. He and his grand flaws get short-changed and cast aside on a whim barely making a ripple, even with the dynamic “God’s House/Heritage USA” number solidifying his presence. The lyrics and the music are both sharp and lively, but the book and the overall intent stumble with this man, leaving some important unpackings in those off-camera asides. Maybe he is Tammy’s true nemesis and the one who we should be exploring with far more curiosity and intent.
The epic range of Elton John’s music remains playful and expansive, yet sometimes leans on the edge of generic and disjointed. Musical supervisor and arranger Tom Deering (West End’s Standing at the Sky’s Edge) leads the band strongly through the paces, elevating and supplying the landscape for these talented artists to rise up with distinction. But it is Brayben, her power ballad voice, and her honest approach to the part that tries its best to solidify the emotional heart and soul of her “See You In Heaven” splendor. She does her best to raise the roof, becoming the least cartoonish character in the show, much to my surprise, even as the material that is holding it together becomes worn down by trying so hard to hold it all together.
Tammy’s drug dependency and Jim’s homosexual affair become almost casual asides, without much development or understanding. There is a beautifully touching moment when Tammy decides against everyone’s wishes to talk with and hug a gay pastor with AIDS (Charl Brown) on her television show, much to the chagrin of her two supposed friends; Jan and Paul Crouch, shallowly portrayed by Allison Guinn (“Only Murders in the Building“) and Nick Bailey (Broadway’s Casa Valentina). They are the duped tertiary villains, overly simplistic Judases in bad clothes and a pretty ridiculous wig, who desire more of the powerful spotlight than they deserve. There, in those moments of conflict, we realize that Tammy is some sort of rebellious trailblazer, in bad makeup, who believes in love, while also draping herself in furs and casually popping pills into her mouth like Tic-Tacs without much unpacking or understanding.
The conversations around her marriage, her complicated drug use, the role she played in the financial mess, and her life after the fall from grace, get almost less airtime than Larry Flint (Evans). Tammy Faye, when it closed in London after a short run at the Almeida Theatre, needed some more time in the musical editing room before it was ready for Prime Time. I had high hopes that some of the structural problems would have been fixed or fine-tuned, and in a way, that is what happened, but there still remains some structural clumsiness that hampers our enjoyment of this high satire spectacular. The new framework is better, although the creators still have some structural problems to get sorted. American politics has darkened its doors and made the high-camp satirical musical, Tammy Faye a bit less tolerable than intended, and the resulting effect didn’t help bring glory to the Palace Theatre.
