One-note "Xanadu" strikes campy pose

By Frank Scheck

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - "The theater? They'll just take some stinkeroo movie ... throw it on a stage, and call it a show."

I wish I could take credit for that astute bit of analysis when it comes to "Xanadu," the new Broadway musical adaptation of the cult favorite 1980 stinkeroo film, but it comes directly from the show itself. Its author, Tony-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane ("The Little Dog Laughed"), clearly wants to head off at the pass the inevitable criticism. No doubt that's why a character also declares at one point: "This is like children's theater for 40-year-old gay people!"

Unfortunately, such self-consciousness is not likely to increase your enjoyment of this slipshod enterprise, which belongs more in a fringe festival than on Broadway. Despite running a mere 90 minutes, it quickly proves wearisome in its one-note camp attitude.

You might recall the plot of the film, if post-traumatic stress hasn't erased it. It has to do with the efforts of a beautiful muse from ancient Greece (Kerry Butler, in the role of Kira, originally played by Olivia Newton-John) to inspire Sonny (Cheyenne Jackson), a down-on-his-luck artist. Her appearance prompts him to try to restore an old, abandoned theater named Xanadu and convert it to a roller disco.

Fortunately for Sonny, the building's greedy businessman owner (Tony Roberts) has a weak spot: He had an encounter with the same gorgeous muse many years earlier.

The show, like the original film, features a musical score by Jeff Lynne (Electric Light Orchestra) and John Farrar, with the amusing addition of Newton-John hits like "Have You Never Been Mellow?"

Although the satirical book has its flashes of wit, it doesn't manage to transform the horrific source material into anything theatrically viable, at least not in a way that hasn't already been done countless times before. (At one point, there's an insulting reference to Andrew Lloyd Webber, but musicals in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.)

The music, featuring such familiar numbers as "Evil Woman," "Party All Over the World," "I'm Alive" and the title song, certainly demonstrates Lynne's trademark pop tunefulness. Unfortunately, it isn't well served here by the tinny arrangements and lackluster vocals.