Tammy Faye, the musical biography of the infamous, free-spending televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, with a score by Elton John, was touted to be one of the Broadway season’s big hits. But yesterday afternoon, just hours before I saw the show, it unexpectedly posted its closing notice, surely reflecting weak advance sales. Tammy Faye opened Thursday and will close on December 8, after 29 performances.
Director Rupert Goold, repeating his London assignment, pulls every video, projection and closed-circuit TV trick in the book, but the show’s book fails to take a viable point of view on its subject, reciting the events of Bakker’s life rather than dramatizing them.
Katie Brayben, who won the Olivier Award in London for originating the title role, belts a few power ballads impressively, but the show keeps losing its focus on her character. The lavish sets will soon be on a trash heap in New Jersey.