Review Roundup: HEAD OVER HEELS at Actor's Express; What Do The Critics Have To Say?

Actor's Express presents Head Over Heels direct from Broadway! Based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney, Head Over Heels features the music of the iconic 80s band The Go-Go's, and was conceived by Jeff Whitty and Adapted by James Magruder. Directed by Freddie Ashley, Head Over Heels premieres in Atlanta July 17-August 25, 2019.

Direct from Broadway! If you want to be part of THE party of the summer, get thee to Actor's Express for the hilarious, sexy Broadway hit Head Over Heels, featuring the music of the iconic 80s band The Go- Go's!

Full of campy fun and romantic entanglements, this wildly entertaining musical romp follows the royal family of mythical Arcadia on a madcap journey to save their kingdom and follow their hearts. Featuring such beloved Go-Go's hits as "We Got the Beat," "Our Lips Are Sealed," "Vacation" and Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and "Mad About You," Head Over Heels will leave you laughing out loud and humming along.

Performances of Head Over Heels are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets start at $20 and may be purchased online at actors-express.com or by calling 404-607-7469.

Let's see what the critics have to say!

Kelundra Smith, Arts ATL: The Actor's Express production is full of spectacle, big voices and big ideas, which aren't given room to flourish in its tiny performance space. Unlike last summer's The Color Purple, which benefited from the intimacy and stripped-down nature of shows here, Head Over Heels fares far less well. It requires a lot of stage magic - things dropping from the sky, sudden appearances, a field trip to the isle of Lesbos - that are difficult to achieve in a space in which the audience can see everything. It's a shame, too, because most of the performances are good.

Bert Osborne, AJC: The show feels overlong, bogging down in patches to dispense with a lot of expository filler between songs. While a conventional staging of Sidney's archaic "Arcadia" might have "strained for lack of a serious message," to quote the funniest line in "Head Over Heels," all the contemporized touches enable the musical to generally get around that particular problem - and, besides, there's absolutely no denying that the Go-Go's soundtrack still has the beat.

Brad Rudy, Atlanta Theatre Buzz: Freddie Ashley directs the whole ambitious thing, perfectly nailing the logistical nightmare that all these moving parts must (by definition) create, and Kari Twyman's choreography is energetic, physically demanding, and elegantly beautiful. The set by Isaac Ramsey is simple - faux Greek facades at two ends of the playing area-between-two-audience-blocks with a beautifully realized faux-mosaic floor design - and allows for many locales and "in-betweens" to quickly move into and out of place. And Ben Rawson's lights are a full-palette wonder of angle and brilliance and design. So, will Head Over Heels inspire me to rush out and catch up with all the Go-Go's work? Maybe. Will it inspire me to download the cast recording and add it to my collection? Probably. Will it linger in my memory like the spectacular "joy bomb" it most certainly is? Most assuredly.

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