A scene from off-Broadway musical ’50 Shades! The Musical,’ running at the Southern Theatre Jan. 21-22.
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Brosilow
The Southern Theatre was full of laughter Tuesday night as audiences enjoyed the hilarious off-Broadway hit “50 Shades! The Musical.”
Written as a satirical comedy of the best-selling book “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James, the musical follows three women as they read the erotic novel in their weekly book club.
The musical begins at a weekly meeting, where the women decide what book to read next. After the first two suggestions are thrown out, Pam, played by Tiffany Dissette, introduces “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
The three women begin with “Open Your Book,” a number expressing their excitement about embarking on this wild and sexy journey through Christian Grey and Anastasia “Ana” Steele’s love life.
The crowd roared in their seats as they watched these three women gyrate and thrust to the mere thought of Mr. Grey.
In the next scene, we meet Anastasia, played by Eileen Patterson, for the first time. Her anxious personality and clumsy behavior make for a great first encounter with successful entrepreneur, Christian Grey, played by Jack Boice.
After reading the books, most readers create their own vision of the perfect Mr. Grey. When Grey enters the scene, though, everyone is shocked. Grey is overweight, fair-skinned and not the least bit sexy.
The audience cracked up as they watched a hilarious mockery of the first seduction scene between Grey and Steele. Grey then presents Steele with a contract that she must sign in order to submit to his unusual requests and fantasies.
The audience is able to get inside Steele’s head as she contemplates the future of a dominant-submissive relationship with Grey. Her inner goddess, played by Caroline Reade, is yearning to be set free by Grey.
As Steele continues to think about the future of her virginity, the musical switches back over to the book club ladies.
All three women can’t get enough of the juicy and thrilling story. They are tangled up in the sexy details of Grey and Steele’s incredible and dreamy sex life.
The musical ends with an energetic musical number where Steele decides she wants to submit to Grey. “There’s a Hole Inside of Me” solidifies Steele’s realization that Grey will fill this hole, no matter how crazy he is.
The audience laughed, shouted and moaned throughout the entire performance. Book super fans, especially, loved the satirical production.
Ohio State alumnae, Vicki Wilson and Susan Small of Zanesville, came to see the show after falling in love with the storyline in the books.
“There were enough direct references to the book that I thought it was really effective,” Small said.
Overall, the show was very well done. The writers and producers poked fun at just the right amount of elements from the books. Even if an audience member didn’t read them, the play still would have had him or her laughing like crazy.
“I thought it was hysterical. They really did a great job,” Wilson said.
The show lasted approximately 69 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission in between acts.
“50 Shades! The Musical” is set to run through Wednesday, and tickets start at $39.50 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster. The Southern Theatre is located at 21 E. Main St.
Grade: A
