A struggling theater in Portsmouth has another small crowd for a matinee showing of "The Boy Friend". The leading lady Rita goes down with an injury and the mousy assistant stage manager Polly (Twiggy) has to take over the lead role of Polly Browne in the 20's era broad flapper musical play. Rumors of a leading Hollywood director in the audience soon spread among the cast who are hoping to be discovered. Polly has a crush on the leading man which comes with various fantasy sequences.
This is mostly an old style musical extravaganza with limited extravaganza. The fantasy sequences are trying to be outlandish like a Busby Berkeley musical. The play itself is meaningless dribble. At least, that's all that I could derive from it. It does fit the premise that almost nobody comes to see it. These take up 90% of the movie and are basically meaningless to any drama. The only interesting drama could only come if the material is treated like "Waiting for Guffman". The reality of the drama comes from the behind-the-scene stuff. The on-stage material tries to be big but has no drama. We may as well be the scattered bored audience in the movie. There is no way to survive the over two hours running time. The simple plot does not deserve the length. One thing that this movie does do is that it shows Twiggy to be a magnetic screen presence and she is an able actor. I don't know what the original London musical "The Boy Friend" is like. I don't know how much play within the play is done. Whatever the case, I can see this as more fun when done live and in person. This feels like watching a second rate production of a musical in a mostly empty theater in the middle of the afternoon.
This is mostly an old style musical extravaganza with limited extravaganza. The fantasy sequences are trying to be outlandish like a Busby Berkeley musical. The play itself is meaningless dribble. At least, that's all that I could derive from it. It does fit the premise that almost nobody comes to see it. These take up 90% of the movie and are basically meaningless to any drama. The only interesting drama could only come if the material is treated like "Waiting for Guffman". The reality of the drama comes from the behind-the-scene stuff. The on-stage material tries to be big but has no drama. We may as well be the scattered bored audience in the movie. There is no way to survive the over two hours running time. The simple plot does not deserve the length. One thing that this movie does do is that it shows Twiggy to be a magnetic screen presence and she is an able actor. I don't know what the original London musical "The Boy Friend" is like. I don't know how much play within the play is done. Whatever the case, I can see this as more fun when done live and in person. This feels like watching a second rate production of a musical in a mostly empty theater in the middle of the afternoon.