At first glance, turning Olivia Newton-John’s 1980 flop musical into a Broadway show looked like a pretty bad idea. Yet the stage version of Xanadu is thrilling and appropriately ridiculous fun. Adapter Douglas Carter Beane went for the camp jugular (thankfully, this CD includes lots of lines from his book), and the cast rises to the occasion, milking every lyric line. Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson bring irrepressible humor and charm to the roles played by Newton-John and Michael Beck, while Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman provide outsize comic relief as muses. The movie’s songs, penned either by John Farrar or E.L.O.’s Jeff Lynne, are insanely catchy, one sing-along hit after another: "I’m Alive," "Magic," "Suddenly," "All Over the World," "Xanadu." All are huge treats, but the craziest track may well be "Evil Woman," which doesn't appear in the movie, but during which Testa and Hoffman let loose shamelessly over-the-top vocal effects.
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Xanadu On Broadway
