Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Head Over Heels

I know I'm a little late, but I didn't get a chance to watch the CBS performances on Thanksgiving day proper, but I figured better late than never. For those who don't know, since CBS doesn't have the same access to the Harold Square star, they fill the beginning hours of their parade by showing previously filmed performances by Broadway shows inside their theaters. One of this year's performances came from Head Over Heels, which tells the story of Philip Sidney's Arcadia (not to be confused with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia) set to the music of The Go Go Dolls. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of jukebox musicals, but I do think they're more fun when they tell an original story instead of the band's biopic (say what you will about Mamma Mia, but it was more "fun" than Jersey Boys), and so I've been cautiously interested in this show for a while, but this would be my first time seeing a number performed.

Wow. I tell you what wow. There was so much going on in this number. But you know what? It might've been awesome! This show is a very weird show doing some very weird things and I expect this number just scratches the surface of the weirdness, but I'm pretty into it. The cast had a great energy and probably burned almost as many calories as the stage manager who called all of those lighting cues. The design of this show looks pretty incredible, the choreography was impressive and engaging, and everyone on that stage just looked like they were having a blast. I'm not sure that this is high art (and I'm not sure that it wants to be) but this performance definitely left me wanting to look into the show more. What a wild ride!