‘Death Becomes Her’ is everything I want in a Broadway musical
Our friend Ryan came to stay with us last week, and one of the items on the agenda for her visit was the Death Becomes Her musical on Broadway. It was my second time seeing the show, and I already want to see it again. If you’re in New York City—or just near enough to take a weekend trip here—I highly, highly recommend it! It’s campy, stupid (in the best way!), and just a really goddamn good time.
I saw the show for the first time right before New Year’s, when I won the ticket lottery. I had seen the movie, but I went in knowing literally nothing about the musical or what to expect. And I was surprised and delighted at every bit of it.
The music? Fantastic, catchy, so funny. The stunts and staging? Excellent, clever, perfect. The cast? Well, this is actually a Megan Hilty stan account now, and I just loved Christopher Sieber in it. (His Act II solo is probably my favorite number in the show, but it’s honestly very hard to choose a favorite.)
Death Becomes Her is the rare adaptation that a) is extremely faithful to the source material, b) somehow manages to improve on the source material, and c) stands on its own as a unique and complete piece of media. (The Devil Wears Prada movie is the only other thing I can think of that completed this triumvirate.)
You really don’t need to have seen the movie to have a good time, but if you’re not familiar with the story, the (very) basic plot is that two lifelong frenemies drink a potion that promises eternal youth and beauty, and makes them immortal…but it doesn’t protect them from, say, sustaining catastrophic injuries (without actually dying), so they essentially turn into hot, falling-apart zombies.
It was really interesting to see Death Becomes Her right around the same time I saw The Substance and the Sunset Boulevard revival; it felt like the three were in conversation with each other (the theme being “woman turns 50, develops psychosis”).
Like, here’s Megan Hilty singing a song that contains the lyrics “I gotta nip, and tuck, and fill, and freeze / And Restylane the lips and Juvederm the knees / Fix the bits, lift the tits, try to hard the scaaaaaars” and “Wrinkled, wrinkled little star / Remind them who the FUCK you are,” fully belting and sounding like a villain during Disney’s golden era (compliment!!!):
I really can’t say enough great things about Megan Hilty’s performance—she’s so good. (When we saw she show last week, we found out once we were in our seats that her understudy was actually going on, and it was, respectfully…not the same show without Megan!) I loved her so much in this, in fact, that I went back and watched the first season of Smash, the truly awful 2012 TV series about the making of a fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe (that was recently adapted for Broadway…it’s honestly all too meta, I can’t even get into it here).
While we’re on the topic of the thea-tuh, here are some stray thoughts on other shows:
The Cabaret revival is very good; I thought Orville Peck was great in it!
I saw Oh, Mary! twice before it transferred to Broadway and hope it sweeps the Tonys. Absolutely loved it.
Yeah, I’m planning to see BOOP! at some point! So sue me!!! 🎭