Score: various songwriters; Book: Aaron Thielen after a screenplay by Neal Jimenez, Lindy Laub and Marshall Brickman. At: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Dr., Lincolnshire. Phone: 847-634-0200; $40-$48 (plus handling fees). Runs through Oct. 16
For the Boys isn't a great film. So it's puzzling that the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire would go to such great lengths to adapt this 1991 box office bomb for the stage.
For the Boys worked best as a custom-built film vehicle for Bette Midler (who was also one of the film's co-producers). Midler sparkles when she's singing period songs and cracking wise comically, but the rest of the film is so overlong and dramatically overwrought that it becomes a tedious chore.
Marriott's stage musical of For the Boys is an improvement storytelling-wise over the film (no clunky flashback sequences and awful old-age prosthetic makeup). However, Aaron Thielen's stage adaptation still sticks too closely to the film, which didn't have a defined point of view as to why we should care about the ups and downs of showbiz professionals who spar on and off USO tours between World War II and the Vietnam War.
With so such plot meandering and an overabundance of jukebox songs that don't further the story, For the Boys soon becomes a showcase for underutilized talent. Don't be surprised if you catch yourself silently referencing performers who were in other shows with better material (to name a few: Summer Smart, Bernie Yvon, Rod Thomas or Michael Aaron Linder).
As the leading comic couple of Dixie Leonard and Eddie Sparks, Michele Ragusa and Timothy Gulan respectively don't have the comic charisma to pull off one character's proclamations that they'll be bigger than George Burns and Gracie Allen. Ragusa handles the dramatic scenes better than Midler did in the film, but she won't erase memories of Midler's great vocal chops and oversize personality.
Director/choreographer Marc Robin's keeps things visually compelling with an ever-shifting cinematic staging that dazzles mostly during the musical numbers (the 1950s TV studio sequence complete with a squeaky-clean plaid-jacketed vocal quartet and an oversize dancing cigarette box was loads of campy fun).
Adding greatly to the historical sweep of the show is Sage Marie Carter's clever video montages and still photo projections (which frequently incorporates the Marriott performers into the historic settings). That's on top of the great period-piece work of costume designer Nancy Missimi, set designer Thomas M. Ryan and the sound design work of Robert E. Gilmartin (who adds in necessary soldier whoops, whistles and applause).
Marriott's For the Boys is technically polished and professionally produced, but it really doesn't answer the question of why it needed to be transformed from a film flop into a splashy stage musical. Also, it's also ironic that the audience only sees showbiz types stressing their importance to the troops without the soldiers themselves saying how the USO performers had an impact on them.