The 1992 Robert Zemeckis movie “Death Becomes Her” is the kind of wild, slightly unhinged thriller-satire of Hollywood divas, plastic surgery and the cult of youth that would never get made today, and more’s the pity. It not only grossed $150 million, its famous special effects became a staple of hoot-and-holler gay bar video screens replaying Meryl Streep’s discombobulated noggin and Goldie Hawn’s shot-through body with its peek-a-boo hole. Ah, the days before ubiquitous digital manipulation spoiled all that fun forever.
Now , which opened Sunday night in its Chicago tryout in advance of a fall Broadway berth with the boffo Broadway stars Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard as the two frenemies Madeline and Helen, one a fading actress, the other a jealous writer. They get mixed up with the same weasel-like plastic surgeon (Christopher Sieber) as well as with Michelle Williams’ Viola Van Horn, a sorceress who promises the two scheming women eternal youth. This clever show was written by Marco Pennette and directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, and features music and lyrics from the very talented newcomer team of Julia Mattison and Noel Carey.
It has some crowd-pleasing strengths, including a genuinely funny book, a swirling, retro, filmic score that features a knockout two-pronged 11 o’clock number for Hilty and Simard, and its best numbers put you in mind of Burt Bacharach and John Barry (no Ingrid Michaelson-like experiments here to confound future To.
