Review: 'Pretty Woman' and 'Head Over Heels' can't quite overcome fundamental flaws
NEW YORK - Two new Broadway musicals with commercial hooks have opened this summer, one progressive in its approach to gender and sexuality, the other regressive about such matters. But the same problem bedevils both shows: The creators haven't conquered their source material.
"Head Over Heels," which is the more inventive of the two, marries, of all things, Philip Sidney's 16th century prose poem "Arcadia" with old hit songs from the Go-Go's. "Pretty Woman: The Musical" adapts to the stage (with a new score by 1980s rock titan Bryan Adams and longtime collaborator Jim Vallance) the 1990 Garry Marshall film that turned Julia Roberts into a big-screen deity.
It's an odd feeling as a critic to wish you could have enjoyed the musical with outdated
