From Page and Screen to Stage: What the New Beaches Musical Is Trying to Be
Beaches, A New Musical arrives at the Majestic Theatre carrying heavy baggage: Iris Rainer Dart’s novel, the 1988 film, and decades of audience memories. The stage version tracks the lifelong friendship of brash performer Cee Cee Bloom and well‑bred Bertie White, from a chance childhood meeting on an Atlantic City boardwalk through love triangles, career clashes, and, ultimately, terminal illness. It is clearly pitched at fans who know they are walking into a tearjerker and who cherish the story’s themes of loyalty, messy female friendship, and that inevitable final rendition of “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” With music by Mike Stoller and a book by Dart and Thom Thomas, directors Lonny Price and Matt Cowart lean into nostalgia: multiple timelines, letter montages, and Cee Cee’s rise through show business. The goal is a Broadway live show that lets audiences relive a familiar story in real time, with voices and emotions filling the room.
A Crowd-Pleasing Weepie: The Case for Beaches as a Live Theatre Experience
One perspective on the Beaches musical review landscape celebrates its unabashed emotional payoff. In this view, audiences really do laugh and cry, especially as the six versions of Cee Cee and Bertie share the stage, embodying girlhood across generations. Early scenes, with child and teen incarnations trading sharp, not‑quite‑age‑appropriate zingers, capture the film’s wit while adding theatrical charm. Jessica Vosk’s powerhouse vocals as adult Cee Cee and Kelli Barrett’s poised Bertie help anchor the evening, and numbers like “A Real Woman” telegraph that “Wind Beneath My Wings” will land with vocal authority later on. Even when new plot devices—such as an expanded love triangle and the song “God Bless Girlfriends”—feel unnecessary, the cumulative effect for many in the theatre is catharsis. For these viewers, the live theatre experience justifies itself through sheer feeling: the shared sniffles, the laughs, and a curtain call after a communal cry.
When Nostalgia Isn’t Enough: Why Some Critics Say the Magic Washes Out
Other critics see a very different Beaches. From this angle, the musical’s film to stage adaptation flattens what made the movie resonate, replacing nuanced friendship with cartoonish characterization and chintzy-looking sets. Adult Cee Cee, played by Vosk, is directed into an over-the-top hybrid of Midler, Mae West, and Catskills clown, while Barrett’s more grounded Bertie still struggles to feel psychologically real. The friendship can seem mandated by plot rather than built on believable chemistry, leaving the stage musical audience to supply missing depth from their own ’80s nostalgia. Supporting roles are sketched thinly; even the men’s comic duet about girlfriends feels like time stolen from the central relationship. By the time “Wind Beneath My Wings” finally arrives, the emotional high point evokes memories of Bette Midler more than the story unfolding onstage. For these viewers, Beaches plays like an oldies tribute rather than a must‑see Broadway live show.
What Really Matters in the Room: Voices, Chemistry, Staging and the Crowd
The split response to Beaches highlights how unforgiving the live theatre experience can be. Onstage, you cannot cut away or rely on close‑ups; the story must breathe through voices, chemistry, and staging choices that feel immediate. Vocal fireworks from Vosk can thrill, but they need a counterpart in intimate, grounded moments that make Bertie’s decline and the women’s reconciliations land viscerally. The rotating timeline—little, teen, and adult Cee Cees and Berties—offers a strong theatrical device when used to create visual echoes of memory, yet it can also underscore how thinly some emotional beats are written. Meanwhile, the audience’s real‑time reactions become part of the show: big laughs at early banter, murmurs at questionable plot turns, the quiet rustle before the final song. Beaches demonstrates that adapting a beloved film is not only about honoring familiar scenes; it is about crafting moments that feel urgent, unmissable, and alive right now.
Beaches and the Future of Film-to-Stage Adaptations: Who Should See It Live?
Placed alongside recent film to stage adaptation efforts, Beaches sits in a middle lane: more than a novelty, less than a must‑grab ticket for casual theatregoers. Hits in this genre tend to reimagine their source material with bold theatricality, offering new songs, deeper character work, or inventive staging that makes the stage version feel definitive, not derivative. Beaches mostly aims to comfort, not surprise, which will appeal to loyal fans eager to hear this story sung by big voices in a shared space. If you treasure the novel or film, enjoy tearjerkers, and value being part of a responsive crowd, experiencing Beaches live may be rewarding despite its flaws. Those hoping for a reinvention of the material—or a breakout event you “have” to see on Broadway—might prefer to wait for a cast album, a future revival with a sharper concept, or, simply, another rewatch of the movie.