Becoming Britney

Description
*** (three stars) What could be easier than making fun of the pop-princess cautionary tale known as Britney Spears? How about making fun of Broadway musicals? Molly Bell and Daya Curley try to kill both of these wounded birds with one stone in Becoming Britney, which employs the “inherently ridiculous art form” of musical theater to track Spears’s journey “from girl next door to millionaire whore.” Bell herself plays Britney, and has a spunky comic presence; Curley directs the production, whose best moments involve energetic dance numbers, including an amusing spoof of the “N.Y.C.” sequence in Annie. But you get the feeling that the authors like both of their targets too much to draw real blood; the show’s plot campily rehashes the singer’s misadventures without any discernable satirical focus. (Last year’s Spears-related episode of South Park accomplished far more in a third of the time.) One wishes that Bell and Curley had approached their project with more outrageous gusto, especially when it comes to such ripe episodes as Spears’s infamous paparazzi crotch flash. Instead, the show settles for being modestly entertaining—too modestly. The show puts Britney in a bald wig, but where’s the bald merkin?—Adam Feldman, Theater Writer