\n<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Valentina, an astrophysicist who, 40 years earlier, hooked up with Grampy when he visited the real world. The best thing to say about her is that she\u2019s played by Faith Prince, looking game, if understandably confused.<\/p>\n
In any case, Grampy and Valentina reunite when he returns to the real world to reclaim Betty, without whom the black-and-white world at home is fading. But will she go back with him, now that, with the help of her new friends, she is involved in a mayoral election, a sanitation scandal and a feminist quest to take charge of her identity?<\/p>\n
I wish the show had taken charge of its identity too. Instead, one feels at all times the heavy hooves of a marketing imperative. The brand discipline is punishing; in David Rockwell\u2019s scenic design, even the proscenium has spit curls.<\/p>\n
And poor Trisha, hasn\u2019t she lived through enough without being turned into a brand ambassador? \u201cBetty Boop has been famous everywhere for like a hundred years!\u201d she says, as one does. \u201cBetty Boop is strong and smart and confident and capable.\u201d She even gets a song, called \u201cPortrait of Betty,\u201d that hymns Boop\u2019s praises as if she were, well, Eleanor Roosevelt: \u201cShe is not afraid to fight \/ For all the people who cannot defend themselves.\u201d In short, as a typically well turned Birkenhead lyric puts it: \u201cShe has spunk, she has spine, she\u2019s a saint, bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there it is. The bottom line.<\/p>\n
Betty Boop, if not the earliest cartoons she appears in, is still under copyright protection. No doubt the Fleischer heirs, with one eye on \u201cBarbie,\u201d would like to exploit their biggest star before she goes bust. Fair enough; who wouldn\u2019t? But a merch grab \u2014 in the lobby a plushie Pudgy goes for $35<\/a> \u2014 is not the same as a musical. The answer to \u201cwhy?\u201d should not come from mere marketeers.<\/p>\n Boop! The Musical<\/strong>
At the Broadhurst Theater, Manhattan; boopthemusical.com<\/a>. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n