Tammy Faye musical on Broadway – Reviews Round-up

"Tammy Faye Was Over-the-Top. This Musical Makes Her Small."

"“Tammy Faye,” a bland, tonal mishmash of a show opening on Broadway, seems afraid to lean into what made the televangelist so distinctive."

"... after that teasing introduction, Tammy Faye’s signature Kabuki facade barely figures in the disjointed, strangely bland musical that opened on Thursday at the newly renovated Palace Theater. It is laudable that the show’s composer, Elton John; lyricist, Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters); book writer, James Graham; and director, Rupert Goold, tried to go behind the mask of this complicated, outsize woman, whose public persona was shaped by and for television. The problem is that they ended up making her smaller than life."

"In the early scenes, Brayben and Borle capture the couple’s upbeat spirit, and John’s music nails the era’s soft-rock melodicism — he helped create that style’s blueprint, after all. "

"But narratively and emotionally, “Tammy Faye” is always on shaky ground because it can’t decide if it’s a satire of televangelism and power-hungry faith salesmen, the tale of the rise of politicized religion, or the earnest feminist journey of an independent-minded woman. By trying to hit so many notes, none of them resonate."

"Elton John’s Broadway show is a disaster of biblical proportions"

"Unfortunately for Sir Elton, the god-awful musical about flamboyant 1980s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (later Messner) is a lot more of a “Lestat” than an “Aida.” Sheesh, the glories of his “Billy Elliot” seem so long ago, Billy probably goes by William now."

"“Tammy Faye,” which I also found lacking when it premiered in 2022 at the tiny Almeida Theatre in London, vanishes in a much bigger Broadway house. Poof!"

"The groaner jokes start right away in the opening scene in a proctologist’s office, where Tammy learns she has colon cancer and makes crude sex jokes to a gay doctor. No comment. No laughs, for that matter. Most of the bits are met with the same hungover silence you’d find in a Catholic church on a Tuesday."

"Cerveris can do no wrong, in my book. But he’s been saddled with a lead balloon. The entire talented cast has."

"Brayben gets two splashy numbers: “Empty Hands,” an emotional ballad after Tammy learns about Jim’s affair with Jessica Hahn, and “If You Came To See My Cry,” her final grasp at love after being ostracized by the world. The British actress sings them capably, even though John’s music comes short of powerful, and her feeling is genuine. She knows how to do crushed."

"With Forgettable Elton John Score, Televangelist Broadway Musical Doesn’t Find the Light"

"It takes more than a holy spirit and revivalist verve to make “Tammy Faye” divinely suited for musical theater. It would take a creative team knowing what their show wants to be: a campy hoot, a stinging indictment, an anguished melodrama, a witty satire, a revealing biography? The new Broadway musical “Tammy Faye” touches on all of these points of view but lands on none with any sense of confidence, consistency or purpose. It’s as messy as Tammy’s mascara."

"In book writer James Graham’s sweeping-yet-thin storytelling, Tammy’s flaws are softened, glossed over or blithely sung through. Without a significant character to balance the bitter, to probe the psychology, or offer a perspective, it’s hard to have faith in the show. At least “Evita” had Che."

"Brayben, who created the role in London, does her best to navigate the wide swings of tone, always giving Tammy heart, soul and a big voice. But she is not helped by John’s score, with lyrics by Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears. The songs are undistinguished and unrooted in character, filled with generic and immediately forgettable power ballads, Christian pop tunes and revivalist floor stompers."

"Unanswered Prayers"

"By all rights, Tammy Faye – she dropped the Bakker after divorcing her cheating, possibly gay husband and partner in the God business Jim Bakker – should make for a delicious stage musical, maybe something along the lines of Titanique or some of the sillier moments of the otherwise tedious Diana: The Musical. Tammy Faye, that musical is not. Opening tonight at Broadway‘s Palace Theater, with a book by James Graham, lyrics by Jake Shears and music by Elton John, Tammy Faye is only slightly more fun than church on a hot July day. All concerned seem absolutely determined to transform the town madcap into a respectable, saintly and rather dull church-lady-next-door."

"Directed with occasional flair by Rupert Goold, Tammy Faye stars Katie Brayben, a perfectly pleasant British actress who grasps Tammy Faye’s Minnesota accent with more aplomb than she grasps the preacher’s outré panache."

"With a plot as thin as the paper of a Bible page, Tammy Faye‘s only hope for salvation would have been some kooky singing and dancing, and yet the show falls short here too."

"Elton John tunes can't save this middling musical"

"The musical adaptation of the legendary "PTL Club" host's life struggles to examine her actions in favor of absurdist gags and bright, flashing lights."

" It’s a shame, then, that the musical adaptation of her life sacrifices both the time and space to properly explore her many trials and tribulations in favor of over-the-top gags and bright, flashing lights."

"... herein lies one of Tammy Faye’s biggest problems: it wants to inspect both the joys of its lead’s Christian broadcasts, while also impressing upon viewers the real-life implications this movement still has on American politics to this day. As a result, it swings wildly in tone throughout its two-hour-and-35-minute runtime — having its talented ensemble deliver campy punchlines, sing, spank their butts, and blow up bright pink, extra long balloons as they perform an innuendo-filled song about God (“He’s Inside Me”) one moment, and then having Cerveris sinisterly perform a fire and brimstone ballad the next."

"Its songs, brought to life with solid music by EGOT-winner Elton John and lyrics by Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, succeeds in providing a bit of insight into Tammy’s mind, but there aren’t many memorable tracks behind "He's Inside Me" and “In My Prime Time” that stick with audiences after the performance. Still, Brayben’s vocals — which are imbued with a soft, country twang — are a true highlight, especially in the musical’s final two performances of the evening. That being said, there are multiple songs that could’ve been cut entirely in order to keep the show moving smoothly and more focused on its star."

"Elton John’s ‘Tammy Faye’ Musical Is Far From Heaven"

"Elton John and Jake Shears’ Broadway musical about televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker makes an unconvincing case for her iconic status."

"The structure and messaging of the musical is a puzzle. At moments, it wants to be as gleefully salacious and irreverent as The Book of Mormon with songs like “He’s Inside Me” featuring Brayben and Christian Borle (Jim; both excellent of voice) imagining God physically inside them. “God’s House/Heritage USA” also revels in the technicolor, surreal lunacy of the Bakkers constructing a Christianity-centered theme park. Here, the musical briefly, and successfully, revels in how excessive their subject matter is. The rest of the songs—shockingly, given the musical bona fides of their creators—are earnest, forgettable duds, with a story surrounding the Bakkers that becomes more and more ill-fitting as the performance progresses."

"Instead of interrogating the murky moral universe of televangelism, Tammy Faye advances the idea that because Tammy Faye and Jim seemed a little nicer and down-to-earth than the judgmental fire and brimstone of Falwell and Co., then their mission was in some way more honest and true. But it wasn’t."

"... at this perilous cultural moment with two extremely famous gay men at its helm, a musical opens on Broadway which glosses over the harms and malevolent power of this far-from-dead, far-from inert organism. Maybe next time the very gay and very powerful could bring the life of a true queer hero to Broadway."

"Praise the Lord and pass the exposition."

"In the course of its decades-spanning survey, Tammy Faye Britsplains the Evangelical movement in ways that may have felt insightful in London, where the show earned many good notices. But U.S. audiences might be distracted by the dramatic liberties that Graham takes with the history"

"The production as a whole, directed by Rupert Goold, is suffused with campiness"

"The trouble with this conception is that Tammy Faye herself is almost the least garish thing about it. Brayben won an Olivier Award for this role, but there’s a fundamental Englishness about her that she can’t quite shake; she’s solid and sympathetic, and sings extremely well, but she doesn’t access Tammy’s rawness and almost childlike ebullience—the personal charisma at the center of her brand of Charismatic Christianity. And the musical doesn’t help her get there."