On the day 50 Shades! The Musicalopened in L.A., news came through that E.L. James' erotic novel had just reached the 100 million worldwide sales mark.
Not only is the book a phenomenal success, but the stage parody it inspired has caught on with audiences, as well. Having premiered at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the vest-pocket revue has gone on from there and played before sold-out audiences in Chicago and New York. And if the wildly enthusiastic response it got from the opening-night crowd at the Kirk Douglas is any indication, Shades will also cash in big during its month-long run in L.A.
That crowd was mostly composed of women, by the way. And no matter if they were young or old, they whooped and hollered at every reference to sex, no matter how crude or smutty. They also cheered the performers on, especially when they were depicting, in bawdily satiric fashion, various aspects of fornication.
The set-up of 50 Shades is simple but effective: three seemingly conventional and straitlaced wives decide to read James' novel in their book club. The shocking scenes of bondage, festishism and submission to a super-rich, sex-obsessed dreamboat of a man, Christian Grey (the hilarious, big-bellied Jack Boice) prove to be surprisingly liberating and life-changing. Next thing you know, they begin acting out all the kinky passages in the book, not only at home but in strip clubs and s&m parlors.
50 Shades’ brief black-out skits are punctuated with musical numbers, eleven of 'em, sung and danced by the nine-person cast, many of whom have worked together in the past as part of the Baby Wants Candy comedy group. They are a talented and raucous bunch, led by a stand-out performer, Eileen Patterson, who lampoons Anastasia Steele, the heroine of E.L. James' novel, in merciless fashion. She's a hoot, and so is the girl's-night-out treat, 50 Shades! The Musical.
