Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Betsy Wolfe is winning as the trailblazing Miracle Mop inventor in the otherwise pedestrian new musical JOY

• By drediman
• July 22, 2025
• No Comments

This week, Joy: A True New Musical opened Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre (typically the Off-Broadway home of Roundabout Theatre Company, which is renting the space this summer to the musical). Featuring a score by AnnMarie Milazzo and book by Ken Davenport, the musical chronicles the mostly biographical rags-to-riches story of trailblazing entrepreneur Joy Mangano, the amateur inventor perhaps best known as the creator of the Miracle Mop, which made her millions of dollars and somewhat of a celebrity for her television appearances on QVC to market her products (the true story is also the inspiration for the 2015 movie Joy, which starred Jennifer Laurence in the title role).

By far the most compelling reason to see the show is to witness Betsy Wolfe’s star turn as Joy Mangano. She delivers an grounded yet aching “everywoman” performance that’s utterly relatable and beautifully sung (she nearly brings the house down with her thrilling high belt in “A Better Way”, the show’s anthemic 11 o’clock number). Indeed, she brings dimension and real feeling into a musical that feels as if it were fabricated by the same factories that produced the Miracle Mop, starting with Milazzo’s perfectly pleasant but generic score, which boasts the same Broadway/pop-light sound that seems to have permeated most musicals being written today. As for the book by Davenport (a notable producer, here contributing his efforts as part of the creative team), I admire its efficiency, but often times the writing opts for portraying caricatures — aside from its layered portrayal of Mangano and her journey — and offering pat conclusions instead of getting into the guts of the messiness of human behavior and relationships.

As directed by Lorin Latarro (who brought joy and crispness to the underrated Huey Lewis and the News jukebox musical The Heart of Rock and Roll), Joy is neatly staged with one eye always towards speeding to the next musical number. Additional kinetic energy has been provided by the choreographed production numbers by Joshua Bergasse (recently represented on Broadway for having created the dances for Smash). Unfortunately, the choreographic results register more obligatorily than authentically inspired by the drama at hand. Besides Wolfe, the balance of the fine cast do their best to rise to her level, but more often than not, the material keeps them shoehorned in two dimensionality.

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JOY: A TRUE NEW MUSICAL
Off-Broadway, Musical
Laura Pels Theatre
2 hours (with on intermission)
Through August 17