Alliance Theatre and Kenny Leon Deliver Fresh Laughs Through 'Trading Places: The Musical!"

The evening of June 3 provided a fun opportunity to experience "Trading Places: The Musical!" now in previews at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. 

Like "The Prom" which earlier enjoyed its world debut on the same stage -- later to make it to Broadway, the Tony Awards and the big screen -- the fresh take on the 1983 film starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis is, in my view and the eyes of others, very likely to make it to the Great White Way as well. 

"Trading Places: The Musical!" is a very funny, crowd-pleasing comedy directed by Kenny Leon (Tony winner for "A Raisin In The Sun") with writing from Thomas Lennon ("Reno 9-1-1"). 

Music and lyrics were composed by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, and whether or not you've screened the source material, from the opening number portraying the City of Brotherly Love, laughs abound. 

Incidentally, GamesBids.com reports that Philly was an Olympic bid candidate at least four times, and the lyrics to the first song performed by everyday Philadelphians aptly ring out any local's likely thick-accented response after losing the bids, with a flipping of the bird punctuated by the shouted directive "Screw Youse!" 

This and 15 other songs also provide a clever new take on "Trading Places" while remaining true to the cinematic source material. 

The tweaks work well, and audience members responded with generous applause for the female version of Murphy's Billy Ray Valentine -- now Billie -- especially through her solos with lyrics at once soulful and silly. 

I also loved the recreation of Aykroyd's Louis Winthorpe III, especially while he's negotiating the pawn shop price of his $6,000 gold timepiece. His lyrical lamentations that follow have their own Swiss wristwatch-like precision and an apt nod to Gstaad.

Another tweak that resonates is Curtis' streetwalker Ophelia replaced with an equally energetic character named Phil Lopez, described by an ArtsATL.org critic and Lennon as "a gay man ... who performs in drag at a piano bar." Some of the funniest scenes involve Phil's gender reveals -- one including a spicy dance number choreographed with a janitorial floor buffing machine -- that are reminiscent of laughs in "Some Like It Hot."

One portly, self-proclaimed bad guy -- this production's answer to King George III in "Hamilton" -- nearly steals the show as the henchman Mr. Beeks, while all of the main characters and performers also have great, likeable parts and surprising one-liners even when their dastardly deeds take shape. If there is anything I would recommend for revisions to the production, it would be simply to add another Beeks number toward the end of the show (according to Lennon's interview with ArtsATL, there was a conscious decision not to go gorilla as in the film, but some other modernized on-stage explanation of his demise might be fun for this foe of everyone). 

Even when some songs seem to be at their most serious there are clever Easter eggs for chuckles that keep things very light. When Winthorpe and his fiancee discover they enjoy love over money, for instance, they admit they won't object to still "having some" funds aplenty. Many in the audience were at their most gleeful as one confused character repeatedly belted out "What the fuck is going on?!" (answer: musical hilarity). 

In an after-intermission scene there is a clever set and lighting design that is creative, comical and realistic for its well-timed passenger choreography to portray rumbles and tunnels along the track. 

By the show's margin call conclusion, fans nearly cheered for an encore while exclaiming (Don Ameche-style) "Turn those machines back on! Turn those machines back on!"

While describing this musical to a friend, I mentioned that "Avenue Q" and "Book of Mormon" (and perhaps even "The Prom") remain on their own, higher plains for crass lyrical laughs. "Trading Places: The Musical" has many strengths that resonate with a similar F-bomb count.  

"We are doing a musical comedy ... that allows one to express themselves through dance, through singing, through words," said Leon, in a radio interview with WABE's Lois Reitzes. "At the beginning of the musical we have two older white men sitting at a table that is probably two-feet wide and they won't let anyone around that table [and] their business."

Leon continued: "At the end of the play what you see is a table that is 20-feet long headed by a black woman [who] invites everybody to be at that table. We're trying to say, 'we've just got to make the table bigger in our country [and] the table should include everyone.' It's a very loving musical that I am excited to bring into the world."

The bottom line is anyone in Atlanta during June may treat themselves to an early edition of this gem likely destined to make it rain plenty of green on Broadway. 

Photos by Greg Mooney via Alliance Theatre