Gil Hates Everything

The history of this show: it was a movie in 1980 (everyone hated it, therefore cult classic status) itself apparently a remake of a 1947 (and probably thus less disco-oriented) movie about a muse coming to Earth to fix up a play besmirching the good name of her sisters. Apparently everyone, even the writer, was iffy about a Broadway adaptation, but it seems in the end they’ve taken a verrrrry knowing approach to it all. Jeff Lynne, chief architect of Electric Light Orchestra who provided half the movie soundtrack, has added new songs to the score. And off we go. The plot is enhanced by rivalry from the other Muses and an appearance by Zeus.

So, this is a mashup of a roller-girl-meets-artist love story, an ELO jukebox musical, and “Clash Of The Titans”. C’mon, admit it, you’re smiling already. Tactfully-selected snippets of dialogue in the songs enforce the idea that this show knows its limit and refuses to play within it: at the start the Muse cheerfully announces that she will disguise herself by changing her name, wearing roller-skates and leg-warmers, and sporting an Australian accent. Her sisters come across suspiciously like the queens from “Priscilla”, but it’s within tolerances, although they hammer some of the songs into interesting new shapes.

As for the music, well, it’s a known fact on GHM that jukebox musicals are even more subjective experiences than usual, according to whether or not you like the jukebox in question: fortunately and unusually, the jukebox provider in question is still alive and making music. ELO, for those who don’t know, was the best band in the world for a good few years in the 70s, and saturated the charts with numerous extremely well-arranged hits. Prime mover Jeff Lynne invented a particular configuration of booming drums, acoustic guitars, strings, and constant big harmonies, and has perpetrated this ideal pop sound ever since in various guises, being a producer; you could be excused for hearing the ELO sound in his supergroup the Travelling Wilburys and also on that Beatles album “Love” which he produced after George Martin retired. He has a knack for lovely chord progressions and exciting arrangements, and it’s a pleasure to hear new songs by him, although also interesting (mostly in a positive way) to hear him exploring outside his comfort zone for the sake of irony… for example, there’s an Andrews Sisters / 80s power-chick mashup (“Dancin’” – the guy disses the 1940s harmonies with the snappy “Nah, that kind of music went out with running boards”), and some very un-ELO-like lounge music. But the songs Lynne contributed to the original movie soundtrack (five of the full soundtrack’s ten) are here, along with a couple of ELO perennials (“Evil Woman”, “Strange Magic”), and the arrangements sensibly don’t fuck it up beyond a certain expectable adjustment of the sound to account for a differently-sized band; one presumes Lynne took a hand in that too.

It’s not really a full-on jukebox show, and its origins as a movie with the same score mean that I’m not actually morally capable of giving it the eleven out of ten which I would blithely dole out to a true ELO jukeboxer. However, with an apparent running time of ninety minutes and this much amusement on offer just from the soundtrack (and also I note the script won an award) it seems at least harmless and possibly very funny. It did well on Broadway and apparently also went to Korea (?!). I can’t see it offering anything beyond raw entertainment, and the story is by this point a xerox of a copy of an imprint, but it sounds like it does that pretty well. It sounds less spectacularly irritating than other 80s-fests such as “The Wedding Singer” – which admittedly is also true of running repeatedly into the same wall, or trying to persuade a dolphin to help you cook a stir-fry – but I get a good vibe from this.

Random Panda awards “Xanadu” eight out of ten pieces of Fun Bamboo. A nice way to finish my reviews for the year.

And if you’ve never heard any ELO, let me account for my obvious bias and fix that right now:
All Over The World
Mr Blue Sky
The Diary Of Horace Wimp
Twilight

(originally posted 2009)