Review: Bring it On – the Musical

When we had friends in town who wanted to see a Broadway show, I looked through the list that would be family-friendly (and shows we haven’t already seen). We settled on Bring it On the musical, a Broadway adaption of a movie. I was a little wary about the subject matter, having never been a cheerleader myself, nor having cheerleader aspirations. The show was a lot of fun, though, and taught some good lessons about being true to yourself and being nice to other people.

 The premise is that Campbell (Taylor Louderman), who becomes head cheerleader (her life ambition), suddenly has to switch schools (due to an orchestration by an evil underling) – ending up in the “wrong side of town” which happens to be non-white. That school has no cheerleading team, though they do have a dance squad that’s more urban in feel. Campbell sticks out like the tall blonde she is at this school full of African Americans and Latinos. Fortunately for her, the goofy, chunky and seemingly untalented Bridget (the show stealing Ryann Redmond) was forced to move too. Campbell works to fit in and start a cheerleading team that can beat the rivals at her former school. Can she do it? Will she do it, and how?

The show, which only had a few bad words, was a good choice for the family. While the subject matter isn’t life-shattering (unless you’re a cheerleader), it was done in a fun way with some plot twists and funny lines that the adults appreciated as well. The cheering was fun, and many of the supporting cast members made their Broadway debuts, and perhaps wouldn’t if they hadn’t cheered in high school and college. The traditional actors did some of the stunts too, though the heavy lifting (er, flying) was left to the professionals.

I’m a sucker for unique staging, and I loved the sets. While we didn’t get autographs at the end, we were there long enough for the actors to come out – the leads all stopped in their roped off areas to sign programs.