"Xanadu": The Musical

Before I saw "Xanadu" saw last night, I knew very little about it, only that it was a Broadway show and featured Whoopi Goldberg. I also had a vague idea that Xanadu stood for some kind of utopian idea and/or place, similar to Shangri-La. Unsure of what to expect once in the theater (Helen Hayes Theater, apparently once called Little Theater for its diminutive size) and seeing the modest stage featuring additional audience seats, I found that the unassuming size was more than compensated for with the set and costume design. I found that I got into the performance more than I had expected, and I was surrounded by an even more enthusiastic audience.

The performance, a fun, 80's-theme spectacle, focuses on Sonny Malone, a down-on-his-luck artist, and the Greek Muses who help him or are otherwise peripherally involved. Whoopi Goldberg plays one of the two matronly Olympian Muses; these two Muses develop their own plan to curse the Muse Clio into falling in love with him (which Muses are forbidden to do) so that they, and not she, might have the opportunity to enter Xanadu. What is Xanadu, the one Muse asks the other? Something so special it cannot be talked about, says the other. And thus mystified, the prospect of entering Xanadu is that much more enticing. They break into a spirited song entitled "Evil Woman," rejoicing over their evil intentions, and they finish with a cackle (to which the audience responds wildly).

The show primarily follows Clio - masquerading as an Australian rollerskating mortal named Kira - and Sonny, as she works to help him regain his inspiration, and the artistic and romantic developments that ensue. The plot is interspersed with songs, rollerskating, and jive-talking dramatics. Clio, or Kira to Sonny, finds herself in a torment as she realizes she has done several things forbidden to Muses: she has fallen in love, and she has made her own artwork. She has helped Sonny to fulfill his dream of opening up his fantasized meeting place for arts and athletics: a roller disco, and she decides that now is when she must flee. I won't spoil the plot any further, except to remind you that the show is a comedy and not a tragedy, if you wonder what happens next.



I have subsequently learned that the Broadway show is loosely based off the 1980 movie, Xanadu. The term Xanadu, it turns out, is borrowed from a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment." In the poem, Xanadu is the Chinese province where Khan situates his pleasure garden. In the show, Xanadu simply means "true love and the ability to create and share art."

An enjoyable musical comedy with substantial flair, from the costumes and the rollerskating, to the sarcastic remarks made by Whoopi and company, "Xanadu" was impressive for what it was. I learned furthermore that the movie basis of the show was a horrendous failure until it eventually regained an audience and became an 80's cult classic. From "Xana-don't," as the movie became dubbed, to the Broadway adaptation, the show is non-stop campy fun. As New York Magazine puts it, it is "Springtime for 'Xanadu' ."

"Xanadu" plays until September 7. The official site is here: Xanadu on Broadway.