Spilling across the stage in an immaculately choreographed tumble of lithe limbs, blinding lights and bewildering plot twists, Bring It On is a wonder to behold. If musical theatre performers are normally triple threats, its cast are quadruple threats, capable of basket tosses and backflips alongside singing, dancing and acting.
In between penning In The Heights and Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda co-wrote the music and lyrics to this show, and a lot of his hip hop-inflected musical trademarks are here. But they’re part of an impressive but slightly soulless package that’s worlds away from the warm, authentic worlds he creates.
Jeff Whitty’s book departs completely from the Bring It On movie plot you might know: it centres on Campbell (a brilliantly well cast Amber Davies, who dispels almost all memories of her Love Island stardom). She’s a neurotic greyhound in a cheerleader’s body, full of hunger to win. But when she gets transferred from her privileged white-dominated school to Jackson High, a nonconformist, diverse school whose female students scoff at the idea of playing second fiddle to sports teams, she’s adrift.
“Being a cheerleader is like being a marine: you sign your life away,” Campbell tells her protegee Eva. But Whitty’s book artfully shows the dangers of putting cheerleading over everything else, as Eva becomes a bouncy-haired bunny boiler on a mission to destroy Campbell’s life.
There are catty put-downs and sharp one-liners galore in this musical’s first act. Director Guy Unsworth excels at creating a pacy production that’s slick as a cheerleader’s ponytail, aided by Fabian Aloise’s brilliant choreography, which draws a sharp line between the borderline fascist precision of posh school Truman and the individuality of Jackson High.
But its attempts to find a heart in the second act are less successful: Campbell’s slow-burning friendship with Jackson High’s dance crew leader Danielle (Vanessa Fisher) feels formulaic, while her romance with Randall (Connor Carson) seems to rely on her totally changing her personality to suit his prematurely-aged needs (instead of going to prom, they go on a night-time hike). And where the movie was full of ahead-of-its time satire of a white cheerleader appropriating moves from her more talented black cheerleading rivals, this musical is less so. Ultimately, Jackson High’s students end up in the background as Campbell’s story and talents take centre stage.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, until Jan 22; southbankcentre.co.uk
