Beaches

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The problem with doing Beaches as a stage musical is that it won’t have Cee Cee Bloom played by Bette Midler who helped make the movie a cult classic. True, it is again co-written by Iris Ranier Dart who wrote the original novel on which the 1988 film was based and co-wrote the movie with Maryann Donaghue. It explains why it took so long to revive Funny Girl on Broadway: without Barbra Streisand what was the point? The new Broadway musical 12 years in the making is pleasant enough but none of it is memorable as the movie was or Broadway blockbusters have to be today to deal with the competition. The story of the 35-year friendship between two women who could not be more opposite will resonate with many women.

The new musical follows the book and movie quite faithfully, but returns to the original names in the novel. While rehearsing for her television show in Hollywood in 1985, superstar singer and actress Cee Cee Bloom receives an urgent  message from the home of her best friend Roberta White, known as Bertie, and leaves to try to get to her house in Carmel without reservations. The show then becomes a flashback to how they met as girls at age ten under the boardwalk at Atlantic City in 1951 where Cee Cee was already appearing in “Jerry Grey Stars of Tomorrow.”  Introverted Bertie is from a socially prominent Pittsburgh family with a domineering mother who has her life mapped out for her, while extroverted Cee Cee, already with a foul mouth and wide experience, is from New York, and has ambitions of being a star. When Rose White pulls Bertie away to their hotel, Cee Cee gives Bertie her address in order to write to her and they become pen pals but don’t see each other.

In 1964 as young women they meet up again at the Beach Haven Summer Theatre where Cee Cee is a member of the company and Bertie shows up to avoid an unwanted marriage her mother has arranged. Both fall in love with artistic director John Perry before Rose arrives to take Bertie back home where she has been accepted to college. Staying in touch through the mail, Cee Cee marries John and is on the way to stardom, while Bertie marries controlling lawyer Michael Barron, her mother’s choice.

Cee Cee’s career takes off and she performs in cabaret, arenas and on television. A visit by Bertie and Michael to Cee Cee and John’s rented Malibu beach house is a disaster and the women stop talking to each other for a long time. John gets to resent being Cee Cee’s manager just as Michael disapproves of Bertie’s pursuing a law career and both marriages break up. Bertie then finds that she is pregnant but her ex-husband takes no responsibility for his daughter. When Cee Cee finds herself performing in Miami Beach, Bertie is there at her family’s beach house as her mother is dying in the hospital. Cee Cee is thrilled with the birth of Bertie’s daughter Nina but has little time for them as her career keeps her in Los Angeles with her own television show. Over the years, the women find that not only are they best friends, but they are also the other’s support system. In the present, Cee Cee finally gets to Carmel to find that Bertie has a terminal illness and they have little time left to be together. The story is called “Beaches” because most of Cee Cee and Bertie’s memorable encounters over the years take place on or near shore communities.

The cast are pale imitations of the actors in the iconic film though they do a respectable job nevertheless. Jessica Vosk tries hard as Cee Cee Bloom and has the singing chops for it, but she does not make us forget Midler. In the less dramatic role of the demure and repressed Bertie White, Kelli Barrett is somewhat bested by the histrionics of her long-time friend. In the underwritten roles of their boyfriends and later husbands, Brent Thiessen as John Perry seems champing at the bit to have more to do, while Ben Jacoby as the male chauvinist Michael Barron remains an unsympathetic character.

The musical uses three sets of Cee Cees and Berties at different ages while the movie used only two. Lest we get them mixed up, all the Cee Cees are generally dressed in red and all the Berties are dressed in blue. Ironically, Samantha Schwartz as Little Cee Cee steals every scene she is in and almost the whole show with her pizzazz, vitality and moxie. Zeya Grace as Little Bertie established her fear of anything new and out of her ken. The teen Cee Cee and teen Bertie (Bailey Ryon and Emma Ogea) are given so little to do that they fade into the scenery. Sarah Bockel’s Leona Bloom as the ultimate stage mother doesn’t hold a candle to Lainie Kazan’s interpretation in the movie. Lael Van Keuren’s Rose White remains stiff and standoffish throughout. Zurin Villanueva gives able support in a series of roles including the clueless Sandy at Beach Haven Summer Theatre and Nurse Janice in the Carmel hospice section.

Much of the snappy dialogue in Dart and the late Thom Thomas’ script comes from the previous sources but somehow fails to land as intended. Possibly under the co-direction of Lonny Price and Matt Cowart, the delivery isn’t as fast. Dart’s lyrics are both prosaic and generic telling us what we already know. They do not seem to have inspired the legendary composer Mike Stoller (of Leiber & Stoller fame) as his songs either sound very similar or as if you have heard them before. Strangely, where the best songs should go to singer Cee Cee Bloom in her diegetic cabaret acts, Bertie has the best two with “The Brand New Me” and “My Best” (i.e. friend.) As you might have expected, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” the sensational Grammy Award winning number from the movie is sung by Cee Cee at the end of the show, but only shows how lacking the new songs are.

Set designer James Noone and video designer David Bengali have worked hand in hand for this multi-scened show. Noone’s framing set with its beach on the apron is complemented by Bengali’s slide projections for each scene which tend to make the show look cut-rate. However, the musical’s framing device of Cee Cee trying to get to Carmel in the middle of the night keeps interrupting the chronological telling of their story and those scenes are rather distracting with collages on archways and pillars. Tracy Christensen’s costumes are bland for Bertie but over the top for Cee Cee. J. Jared Janas’ wig design makes sure that all three Cee Cees have the same fiery red hair.

The stage version of Beaches does a good job of telling the story but seems to have forgotten that the movie was a tearjerker. This is not as emotional as the previous one. Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett are fine as far as they go but the bigger-than-life quality that the characters had in the movie is missing. Ironically, the movie score with its famous American songbook selections was more impressive than the new score written for the stage show. You can still have a good time at Beaches but you will leave the theater thinking that the movie was more successful.

Beaches (through September 6, 2026)

Majestic Theatre, 247 W. 44^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or visit http://www.beachesthemusical.com

Running time: two hours and 35 minutes including one intermission