“It has a big beating heart. It’s actually not snarky, it is completely exuberant. The Go-Go’s music is utterly exuberant.” That’s how co-director/co-choreographer/co-conceiver Sam Pinkleton says of the Pasadena Playhouse production of Head Over Heels which officially opened last weekend.
Pinkleton and Jenny Koons (the other half of the creative team) have put together a show that feels both of the moment and just what we need in this moment. Anyone who knows such songs as We Got the Beat, Vacation and Our Lips Are Sealed already knows how buoyant they are. To experience those hit songs as part of an audience given a chance to be on the stage with the cast is a gift after so much time during the pandemic wondering when the isolation might end.
Halfway through rehearsals I spoke with Koons and Pinkleton about taking on a significantly revised version of a musical that, frankly, failed on Broadway. Their journey began when they saw Head Over Heels in New York.
“We saw Head Over Heels together in New York on Broadway,” Koons says, “and had a great time and really fell in love with the joy of it and the way that the Go-Go’s music had been integrated.” It should be noted that the storyline is based on Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney which was published in the late 16th century.
As much as they both enjoyed the musical, it wasn’t the type of show they usually do. The two have collaborated on Burn All Night at American Repertory Theatre and a new production of the Elizabeth Swados musical Runaways in New York.
“The way that it was presented on Broadway, which was very much a proscenium musical with two acts, was not necessarily how either of us works,” Pinkleton revealed. That wasn’t the kind of show the Pasadena Playhouse had in mind either.
Koons says, “When the Playhouse approached us about imagining this in a different form as a party – people on the floor, everyone dancing to the beat – it felt like a question of can we take what we loved about the experience we had and make it amplified even more. So it was less about how do you reduce something and more about how we take what we love and make those things even louder in real life.”
As both Pinkleton and Koons began their exploration as to the best way to answer that question, it became apparent that they were doing more than just a production of a pre-existing show.
“It feels like a gift that we are coming at this with fresh eyes; making new musicals is really hard and really ugly,” said Pinkleton. “I feel like we’re having the process of making something new, even if the script in the show is kind of a given.”
Along with the team at the Pasadena Playhouse, there was a reason they wanted to do something different with Head Over Heels.
“In this moment of twenty twenty one,” Koons says of their thinking, “what is the story that we’re all telling as we come back together. I think how we’ve approached this, from looking at it with the Playhouse, was as an invitation back. Welcome home. Welcome back! What does it mean to be gathering again in person.”
It’s an invitation that for anyone and everyone – whether your knew The Go-Go’s music or the story in the show.
Pinkleton explains. “Welcome back to people who just happen to be walking down the street. Welcome back to people who would never expect to come into a theater. I don’t think that that’s something we’re imposing on this show. I actually think that’s the heartbeat of the show. I think there’s a queerness and an openness and a curiosity – the show is about that. It’s the story of people who go on a journey to discover that everything they needed, they had the whole time.”
What Koons and Pinkleton did so well with the show was to assemble a cast where anyone who sees the show will find themselves represented on stage. The cast includes Alaska 5000 (best known from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 and the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars season 2); Yurel Echazarreta (a member of the Broadway cast of Head Over Heels); recording and drag artist Freddie; Lea DeLaria (jazz singer and star of Orange Is the New Black); Tiffany Mann (Be More Chill and Waitress on Broadway); George Salazar (Pasadena Playhouse’s Little Shop of Horrors); Emily Skeggs (Fun Home on Broadway) and Shanice Williams (The Wiz on NBC).
That was precisely the point offers Koons.
“The goal has been to create something unique for the performers and artists that we gather. I feel like we’re constantly on our toes for how we really shape this to them. We made a joke in the first week that it’s like the Queer Avengers. How do we make sure that all eight and that the humans we have gathered feel able to be there for ourselves in a way that can invite audience members to do the same.”
They two directors also made sure that their vision was shared by the cast they hired Koons offered.
“With the performers that we have gathered this feels very much like a shared mission. Yes, we’re doing a show, we’re doing it in the midst of a crazy moment in time. And all of us are coming to this with the spirit of an open invitation that really is for everyone.”
As much as you might enjoy the show, Pinkleton believes it’s something more that will be part of the experience of seeing Head Over Heels.
“The thing we’ve been missing the most is bodies,” he says, “living, breathing humans. So nothing is going to be more spectacular than the humans. And that’s true for the performers, and that’s true for the audience.”
As someone who experienced the show on the stage with the show happening all around me, I can vouch that the greatest joy came from dancing, celebrating and enjoying this shared space with so many wonderful people.
To watch the complete interview with Jenny Koons and Sam Pinkleton, please go to our YouTube channel here.
Head Over Heels continues at the Pasadena Playhouse through December 12th. For tickets go here.
Main Photo: Lea DeLaria, Alaska 5000, Shanice Williams and George Salazar in Head Over Heels (Photo by Jeff Lorch/All photos courtesy Pasadena Playhouse)