Ivoryton Playhouse Offers a Bland Pizza
By Tom Holehan
Connecticut Critics Circle
Yet another example of a popular movie jerry-rigged into a musical theatre offering, Mystic Pizza has arrived at the Ivoryton Playhouse in its professional Connecticut debut only miles from its namesake town. The sentimental 1988 film that made a star of Julia Roberts would not immediately spring to mind as a musical-in-the-making, but that never stops creators with a familiar title and a bag full of popular pop songs at the ready.
A coming-of-age comedy, Mystic Pizza charts the lives and loves of three waitresses in the seaside town of Mystic, Connecticut. For sexy Daisy Araujo (Ariella Kvashny), her Yale-bound younger sister, Kat (Carina Hernandez), and their runaway bride friend, Jojo (Alyssa Giannetti), working in the title pizza joint is a chance to earn money and dream of love while planning their escape from the confines of their small town. The men in their lives include JoJo’s ever-patient jilted groom Bill (Will Clark), Daisy’s rich preppie Charles (Isaac Kueber) and Tim (Michael Ferraro), a married architect who tempts Kat.
With a book by Sandy Rustin based on the motion picture with story and characters by Amy Holden Jones, Mystic Pizza also employs a boatload of popular pop tunes from the 1980s and ‘90s. This includes John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which are each reprised twice in the first act alone. Huey Lewis’ “The Power of Love,” Lauper’s “True Colors” and Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” are only some of the hit songs uncomfortably shoe-horned into the bland storyline.
The lead actors, under Brian Feehan’s staid direction, are good given the material, especially Kvashny and Giannetti who stretch beyond the cliché characters they’re playing and have impressive vocal chops to boot. Pity the “boyfriends” who are an underwritten and sorry trio even while Clark has a puppy dog charm and Kueber demonstrates a nice chemistry with Kvashny and sings impressively. Leenya Rideout overplays the owner of the pizza establishment, but at least she brings a wave of new energy onto the stage with every entrance.
The very busy scenic design by Cully Long provides a large dock with fish nets and buoys that takes up a lot of space leaving little room for the various other scenes required. A “mansion” setting, represented by what looks like a sofa from Bob’s Discount Furniture, and an upscale yacht club with hanging twinkle lights, are never made credible in the limited space at Ivoryton. Side projections add little to the proceedings, but Elizabeth Saylor’s costumes and Marcus Abbott’s lighting are worth a mention. The unseen band, under David Madore’s direction, is perfectly fine, too.
Mystic Pizza had its World Premiere at Maine’s beloved Ogunquit Playhouse in 2021, but has yet to enjoy a Broadway production. Perhaps producers saw the response to previous movie-based musicals like “Pretty Woman,” “9 to 5,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and, Lord help us, “King Kong,” and are sticking to the regional theatre scene with less-demanding audiences.
Mystic Pizza continues at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street in Ivoryton, Connecticut through July 28. For further information visit: www.ivorytonplayhouse.org and or call the box office at: 860.767.7318.
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and the Stratford Crier and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at [email protected]. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website: www.ctcritics.org.
