Theatre Review: This One’s For The Girls Shows Music Narrates Women’s Empowerment
Under the direction of Tamara Kangas Erickson, THIS ONE’S FOR THE GIRLS looks at the role of women over the past 100+ years through 40 Top 40 hits. With music direction by Zachary Ryan, each song flows into the other to show something that is hard to believe with so much dark thoughts and even policies against women…. we have actually gotten better. THIS ONE’S FOR THE GIRLS reminds audiences that empowerment is a journey more than an arrived destination.
I have to say THIS ONE’S FOR THE GIRLS is one of the brightest Off- Broadway shows I have seen. It is filled with an innocent vibrance that brims with hope and a childlike glee. This musical is so joyful it might take you aback, but the audience, scoped in ages, was eager to hear the music that defined their era and share a few sweet laughs. The musical is led By Jana Robbins as the narrator based off the musical’s writer former Vanderbilt professor, author, and playwright Dorothy Marcic, This One’s For the Girls is setup to journey through a 100 years of women’s music and give them the historical anchors that you might not have realized. The first half of the century, especially during The Great Depression and WWII, ingrained in women a neediness for their man and mindlessness for their attention, i.e. Haley Swindal’s hilarious Betty Boop impression or her outlandish rendition of “It Must Be Him”. Swindal definitely gifts the audience with show-stopping comedic segments that leave you rolling and bonding with your mom, grandma, or daughter, of which all can attend together. Actresses Traci Blair and Aneesa Folds are also a blessing to the stage, and never miss a moment to leave an impression through their renditions of ““The End of the World” and “You Don’t Own Me”. Altogether, their laughs, chemistry, and potently powerful vocals help to drive home a core epiphany of THIS ONE’S FOR THE GIRLS; women’s lives have been framed by men, but through a hundred years of empowerment we have broken some frames.
Leave it to music to remind you where you have gone and where you wish to go. I could not help but notice amongst the happily singing audience the lyrics that many male authors have given to women to sing on how great it is to love a man. From desperation to be noticed, inner fragility from being ignored, and the eventual rise in songs that said to forget men and look to one’s self, “I Will Survive” , This One’s For The Girls truly lives up to its name and aim to show loving your womanhood defines female confidence. For More Information Click Here. This One’s For The Girls is playing at St Luke’ Theatre until Saturday, December 30, 2017.
St. Luke’s Theatre is located on 308 West 46th Street, NYC, and the musical is 90 minutes without intermission.
