The cast of “50 Shades! The Musical” gyrated, groped and spanked so hard that the fourth wall came tumbling right down.

The touring production came to Syracuse for one night only as part of the Famous Artists Broadway Theater series. At 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 at the Crouse-Hinds Theater at the Oncenter, an announcer said, “Good evening ladies, and gentlemen dragged here by their ladies.” And the mood for the night was set.

The musical opens with Carol (Sheila O’Connor), Bev (Alexis Field) and Pam (Tiffany Dissette), three dried up housewives searching for a book that might fill the holes in their love lives. That book is, of course, “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

This is the perfect way to create a musical parody of such an iconic novel. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is notorious for popping up on moms’ and aunts’ (and grandmas’?) e-readers. Making fun of the book itself is hilarious enough — and the musical certainly does that — but adding the housewife book club to the mix brings another layer of parody and acknowledges the book’s place in society and pop culture.

Plus, the cast is absolutely hilarious, crossing lines at every opportunity. The first number, “Open Your Book,” ends with dancer Chris Sams waving his hand around inside Field’s skirt. That gesture alone was a pretty good indication of where the night was going.

After establishing the book club premise, the show introduces Anastasia (Eileen Patterson) and her best friend Katherine (also played by Field). Patterson plays up the innocent, vanilla virgin to the extreme, all but saying to the audience, “I’m really boring, and I let people walk all over me.” Field gives one of the standout performances of the night with her drunken, foul-mouthed portrayal of Katherine, a free-spirited and sexually generous foil to Anastasia.

As Patterson glides into “There’s a Hole Inside of Me” (yeah, they mean that hole), it’s evident that what makes the musical work so well is the level of vocal talent the cast members bring. Sure, they’re all acting out ridiculous parts, but when it comes down to it, their voices are solid. Patterson in particular brings richness in her singing that almost makes you forget about the words coming out of her mouth.

But it’s not just the words that made the audience struggle between laughter and major discomfort; the dark prince Christian Grey (Jack Boise) offers the greatest physical comedy of the evening.

In the book, Anastasia’s mysterious love interest Christian is a sexy, powerful, self-assured, dominating force to be reckoned with. In this production of “50 Shades! The Musical,” Christian is about 200 lbs. of gut and body hair. And he’s fabulous.

Boise’s true shining moment is during “I Don’t Make Love,” when he prances, grinds and shimmies his way across the stage in a bright red, spandex onesie that leaves little to the imagination. It’s at this moment that “50 Shades” goes from musical to comedy show, with Boise inserting Syracuse-specific lyrics (“Sexy ladies from the ‘Cuse, I see some p*ssy that I’d like to abuse”) and pointing out female audience members.

This violation of the fourth wall persists throughout the performance, sometimes resulting in mild audience participation and short dialogue between the crowd and the performers. But it totally works. Besides, when the cast members are breaking the rules of decency in every scene, the traditional rules of theater should be the least of anyone’s worries.

The first song of the second act, “Red Room,” takes Anastasia into Christian’s secret, sadistic room and introduces her to his unconventional fetishes. Christian asks her to sign a contract that essentially says he can do whatever he wants to her, whenever he wants. The rest of the musical shows Anastasia struggling between the freedom she feels from being with him and the obvious lack of freedom she’d have if she signed the contract.

And this is where the musical really succeeds. It points out a major logical flaw of the book by emphasizing how stupid it is to think Anastasia was liberated by signing her body away to a sadist.

But, of course, she eventually decides to sign the contract, justifying her action by saying, “This is real life, this isn’t a book! If it was, it would be terrible!” The line is a little obvious and easy, sure, but amusing nonetheless.

One of the refreshing and unexpected parts of the musical was the strong female cast. The housewives almost embody the women of “Sex and the City” with their candid discussion of sex and relationships, topics that are still not exactly the norm in entertainment media, unfortunately.

Societal strides aside, “50 Shades! The Musical” is pretty much just an hour and a half of innuendo, crude gestures and dialogue that will make you burst out laughing and blush at the same time. And it’s excellent.

Published on November 13, 2013 at 1:42 am

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