Barbie: A Parody

Meraki Theatre Productions—CCFM – Antoine Gaborieau Hall

We need to encourage young performers as they’ll be the ones entertaining us in the future. This cast of 10 is all under 18!

The audience, as expected on opening night, was jammed with adoring parents, grandparents and friends and extra seats had to be pulled in. These kids could have sneezed and got a standing ovation.

Fortunately, they did much better than that. This is a musical and the cast was lively and very enthusiastic. They were well rehearsed. It’s expected, with a cast this large and youthful, all are not at the same level of expertise. There were four standouts for me. There was no program, so no names. The young woman who played Barbie, the narrator, was polished, a wonderful, standout dancer and one of the consistent and strong vocalists. Barbie herself was the perfect physique to play a plastic doll. Tall, blonde, lithe, her performance was perfect for the role. Ken, was far and away the most mesmerizing and memorable. His vocals were superb and strong, his dancing was amazing and seemed to come naturally. I expect to enjoy more of him in the future. The Weird Barbie was not afraid to be weird. She reminded me of a young Lucille Ball and deserved all the laughs she got. Another to watch out for. Unfortunately, most of the tunes were set in keys beyond the reach of most of the female voices. This was not due to a lack of ability but to the lack of attention of whomever was in charge of the music. An easy fix.

If you have a teenager that enjoyed the Barbie Movie, they would love this.

Lisa Campbell