THEATER REVIEW
VOLLEYGIRLS
Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.; 212-352-3101. Through Saturday. Running time: 120 minutes, one intermission.
After the cheerleader musicals "Bring It On" and "Lysistrata Jones," it's nice to see girls finally take the court. And they do so — winningly — in "Volleygirls," about a high school girls' volleyball team.
Written by Rob Ackerman ("Tabletop"), this New York Musical Theatre Festival production explores adolescent angst in a way that's refreshingly free of clichés. Several of the teenage players are struggling with personal issues: Marisol (Gerianne Perez) with her sexuality, as made clear in the song, "I Like Girls"; Katie (Juliane Godfrey) with her academic studies and Jess (Allison Strong) with her domineering P.T.A. mom (Jennifer C. Johnson, who stops the show with a killer song titled "Animal in Our Midst").
Kevin Thomas Garcia
Volleyball players tackle their issues in the pop-rock musical.
But their problems pale in comparison with those of Kim (Susan Blackwell, of "[title of show]"), the English teacher pressed into coaching them. A former college volleyball star nicknamed "The Beast," she's still traumatized by the memory of choking at the Olympics.
Enlisted by Katie's father (Benjamin Howes), the headmaster who harbors a not-so-secret crush on her, Kim addresses her anxieties in the number "Don't Say a Word," spoken "Cast Away"-style to a volleyball: "Frailty, thy name is Wilson!"
The sole male student figuring in the action is Xavier (PJ Adzima), the school webcam reporter whose infatuation with Katie is expressed in the pretty ballad "You're Beautiful When You Play."
In fact, the whole pop-rock score — music by Eli Bolin, lyrics by Sam Forman — is terrific. Director Neil Patrick Stewart keeps the action moving at a nice clip, and choreographer Ryan Kasprzak puts the young performers through their energetic paces.
"Volleygirls" doesn't score many points for originality, and its small-scale charms make it unlikely for mainstream success. But more often than not, it gets the ball over the net.
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