By Matthew Wexler
Long, long ago, in a land not too far away, we’d sit in front of the TV for hours on end, watching a circus car full of personalities convince us that we needed a supersonic hairdryer, pressure cooker, or—in the case of inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano—a Miracle Mop.
Mangano’s trials, tribulations, and triumphs are the source material for Joy: A New True Musical, now playing Off-Broadway and starring Tony nominee Betsy Wolfe in the title role. Most are familiar with the divorced mother of three thanks to the 2015 film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Mangano’s best-selling memoir.
Adapting Mangano’s life into a musical, in many ways, makes sense. AnnMarie Milazzo’s music and lyrics provide the emotional lift that parallels the Miracle Mop’s X factor. (Self-wringing! Absorbent cotton head! Versatile!). The score is most successful when it sits in an easy pop vein, but veers off-course in an over-choreographed doo-wop QVC production number, and later in a two-stepping country conflict where Joy faces off against a crooked business partner. Director Lorin Latarro, who energized pedestrian movement with her choreography for Waitress, turns the reins over to Joshua Bergasse, resulting in a movement style (though beautifully executed by the ensemble) that feels like it belongs in a different show.
Book writer Ken Davenport (also one of the musical’s producers) keeps Act I clipping along, quickly establishing Joy’s challenging family dynamic, including a houseful of divorced parents, an ex-husband living in the basement, and a teenage daughter struggling for mom time. But once Joy hits her stride, Act II falls apart like an unraveling mop head.
As the can-do entrepreneur who won’t take no for an answer, Wolfe is a charmer, evolving from exasperated to empowered. Time spent in Huntington, Long Island, where Mangano grew up, might have helped shake some of the California out of Wolfe. Still, she carries the bulk of the show with the panache and power of her source material, one easy clean-up at a time.
Joy: A New True Musical plays Off-Broadway at the Laura Pells Theatre through August 17.
‘Joy: A New True Musical’ takeaway
Mangano’s Miracle Mop was just the beginning; some sources claim her net worth has grown to over $70 million. That’s a lot of mops (and hangars, and cleaning supplies, and travel accessories, and so on). CBS Mornings profiled the entrepreneur, offering a peek inside the mind behind the empire:
“What’s your damage, Heather?” More than you think, even as a musical
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