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‘50 Shades’ of parody DeYor to present musical based on risqu books
if you go
What: “50 Shades! The Musical”
When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5
Where: Powers Auditorium, 260 West Federal St., Youngstown
Tickets: $25, $32, $39, $49 call 330-744-0264 or visit www.youngstownsymphony.com
By John Benson
Youngstown
One would expect a theater production called “50 Shades! The Musical” to be a whipping good time.
At least that’s what actress Amber Petty, who has the production’s lead role of Anastasia, figured originally when she first heard the idea about this new musical.
“At first I thought it would be just a bunch of crazy sex scenes on stage or something,” laughed Petty, calling from New York City. “I hadn’t read the books yet, and then after I had, I just thought it was kind of fun, this very na Øve character. And I loved some of the songs they had already written. It was just cool to be in the very beginning of creating this new show.”
“50 Shades! The Musical,” which made its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, comes to Youngstown for the first time Saturday at the Deyor Performing Arts Center in Powers Auditorium.
The show opens with a ladies book club deciding to read “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which has sold more than 32 million copies in the United States. Through various interpretations of the novel, the audience is led on a hilarious roller-coaster ride of this unlikely bestseller. The show features 11 original songs – “They Get Nasty,” “I Don’t Make Love, I [expletive]” and “There’s a Hole Inside of Me” – and a live band.
Petty said the show is decidedly different from another “Fifty Shades of Grey” parody touring production. Basically, “50 Shades! The Musical” boasts not only a full cast but more of a complete story that contains a modern – if not dirty– sense of humor.
“It has kind of a ‘South Park’-ish sensibility,” Petty said. “It just heightens the books, hopefully going beyond what most people would think of when they think of the books. It can be hard to image what a ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ musical will look like, especially if you haven’t read the books. For people that read the books, it’s certainly different than they expect. It ends up being a lot funnier than people think it will be. It’s just really silly and fun.”
Still, it is based around “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the risqu series of books that over the past few years inspired, entertained and titillated women with taboo subject matter.
Furthermore, considering the “50 Shades! The Musical” has a bit of a girls’ night out feel, this probably means if spouses and husbands suck it up and take out their better halves the end of the night could be, well, worth the wait.
“We have a lot of couples of all ages tell us how they’ve been inspired,” Petty laughed. “It’s definitely a fun girls’ night show but we have tons of couples and men who like it just as much as the women. So it’s a really fun show. And yeah, if you have anything you want your lady to maybe experiment with, this may not be a bad way to introduce that topic to her.”