Off-Broadway Musical "White Girl in Danger"

The show: “White Girl in Danger” at the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd St.) in New York

What makes it special?: The follow-up musical by Michael R. Jackson who won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for ”A Strange Loop”

A bit of perspective: Sometimes being so wildly praised for your first major musical (“A Strange Loop”) can make an artist — and overeager theaters who want to attach themselves the new hot artist’s next project — oblivious to the demands that the new work needs. This is certainly the case here.

Side note: When I reviewed the off-Broadway production of “A Strange Loop” I enthusiastically praised the music and imagination and the production but cautioned that the musical’s final quarter still needed significant work. Then it won the Pulitzer and when it transferred to Broadway the final quarter was still a tangle of ideas that needed focus, if not editing.

That show, directed by Stephen Brackett, subsequently won the Tony but audiences didn’t turn out in droves, despite raves and an armful of awards — perhaps word of mouth was one of the reasons, perhaps it was never destined to succeed in the Broadway marketplace. The show closed after eight months, which wasn’t terrible for such an ambitious and challenging show. There was no national tour, a rarity for the Tony winner of best musical of the season. Still, it was a stunning achievement that such an anti-establisment work even made it to Broadway and lasted as long as it did.

Now with “White Girl in Danger” this clearly talented and imaginative theater artist is even more unmoored. After seeing this latest there-hour work, I kept wondering, “Wasn't there anyone questioning the many choices? Wasn’t anyone asking basic questions of logic, of clarity, or stagecraft?”

So you didn't like it: I found it tedious, indulgent, witless, and with little of the musical and comedic sharpness that Jackson brought to “A Strange Loop.” Challenging themes worth writing about abound here but they were all buried in an epic hot mess.

What’s it about: Set in the world of soap opera, Jackson centers on the (not too) fictional town of Allwhite, where all the major players are all white (duh) and the black characters are in the “blackground.”" The main narrative centers on three troubled (abused, drugged out, eating disorder) white teen girls named Meagan, Maegan, and Megan who feel endangered when a killer is on the loose. One member of their musical band had already been killed and they can’t afford to lose any more members because of a battle-of-the-bands contest coming up.

Sounds more like a dumb teen slasher film than a soap opera: Correct. Most soap operas have an occasional teen subplot but the main drivers are (very attractive) adults in melodramatic and scandalous situations. In Jackson’s meta narrative, he has Keesha, one of the young women in the “blackground,” escaping their stock story lines about racism, slavery, and police violence and makes it her mission to make herself part of the main storyline, eventuality taking it over and flipping the focus of the soaper.

That sounds like decent grounds for satire, or spoofing or parody: That outline sounded promising to me too but Jackson’s storytelling is wildly out of control — and too often sophomoric — and audiences will be increasingly baffled by the goings-on and endings that keep on coming as the third hour approaches. (Charles Ludlum and Charles Busch at least had the good sense to keep their parodistic works short, their wits sharp. Obviously Jackson is going for something more weighty, all the more reason to have it focused. In then end it was just speechifying.

But I was wary from the start.

Meaning?: One suspected that the show might not be that polished judging from the faux soap opera trailer clips of tired soap tropes that proceeded the show and ran during intermission. Also not helping were the garish sets, terrible sound system. and movement that needed traffic control. The performances are exhaustively over the top.

Who will like it?: Fans of Jackson who can overlook many of this production’s failings. Perhaps some soap opera fans with high endurance

Who won’t?: Fans of Jackson who feel the two not-for-profit theaters did Jackson — and the work — a disservice by producing it off-Broadway far too soon.

For the kids?: Some may like the over the top stylizations and certainly its themes are relevant and its cultural references some fast and furious. . But a three hour show fever dream of a musical for the TikTok generation? Hmmm. I wonder.