Bella: An American Tall Tale

"Sprawls in so many directions—with changes in tone to match (or mismatch)—that it collapses into inertia...The idea of a woman who leads unabashedly with her rear has both comic and heroic appeal. The conceit never quite lands. What should be an anarchic life force often feels more like an anchor...The score lacks a steady musical signature to reconcile the abrupt shifts in tone. And as staged by Mr. O’Hara, this story of action-packed adventures feels strangely static." Full Review

"In its most coherent moments, 'Bella' looks and sounds like a dubiously dramaturged educational musical for kids. This is disappointing because Childs sets her story in a time of rich dramatic potential...At least the cast works hard to sell this muddled material...Director Robert O'Hara does little through staging and design to clarify Childs's winding script...Rather than feeling inspired, challenged, or even amused, audiences are most likely to leave 'Bella' feeling baffled." Full Review

“Kirsten Childs’ high spirits are infectious. ‘Bella’ is her irresistible invitation to kick up your heels…Although our heroine’s picaresque adventures are the heart and soul of the show, Childs doesn’t neglect the other characters…The fun of the show would seem to depend on the wild tales that Bella spins out of her fertile imagination. But when her journey finally comes to an end, Bella has made a great discovery about herself.” Full Review

“For most of the first act, it's barely a tale at all, so crammed is it with numbers that go nowhere and characters who quickly vanish from the narrative…There is a very good point wandering around inside ‘Bella,’ but it is obscured by an excess of silliness and vulgarity…Under the fast-paced and often inventive direction of Robert O'Hara, an appealing cast works hard to maintain an engaging mood, even during the more embarrassing episodes." Full Review

"The show is such a hoot that it never feels didactic. That’s not to say that it isn’t ungainly. The episodic nature of the first act grows tedious, and the musical’s heavier-handed second half...is ambitious for a show so campy it features an 11-o'clock number sung by the spirit of Bella's rump. But for the most part it bounces along buoyantly, thanks to Robert O’Hara's smooth direction and go-for-broke actors who also reveal the humanity in their over-the-top characters." Full Review

“Bouncy, bloated, and blithely bizarre…A musical paean to big, black, female bottoms, and the women they belong to…Whereas Act One's dramatic progression is weak, being essentially a series of adventures, Act Two provides a sharper narrative…Childs's music ranges from the melodically bland to the tunefully enjoyable…'Bella' is all over the place, unsure of its satirical purposes...It becomes difficult to tell just what it is we're watching.” Full Review

"There is a lot to admire about Childs’ 'Bella'...The entire cast is vocally strong and a great deal of fun...The score is interesting....The script, however, is a mixed bag...The problem is 'Bella' is three shows, which is one too many...Robert O’Hara’s direction also seems a little over-the-top and, instead of grounding Ms. Child’s work, he has set it to flight...I would like to see this piece reworked and brought back. There is a gem inside all of this disorder." Full Review

"It's not without strong assets, but takes its time, pretty much the entire first act, to get beyond a mish-mash of songs and characters piled on top of each other...Despite the excellent designers and energetic cast, the storytelling and musical numbers lack the polish of the big Broadway-ish musical this aims to be. The good news is that everything and everyone gets better after the intermission." Full Review

"This show leaves us scratching our heads...I’m not sure I understand the directorial choice of having so many characters be so campy and over-the-top, but it certainly didn’t help keep me engaged in this meandering concoction or care about the outcome...Kelley, as Bella, is the shining star in this circus of a show...It’s just a shame she is centered in the swirl of a musical that is having an identity crisis, saddled with some of the silliest scenarios I’ve seen." Full Review

"The cast of twelve are all talented, with Kelley and Miller the standouts. The production is lavish...Childs’s music mixes many styles and occasionally seems derivative: there is a song near the end that sounds very similar to the disco anthem 'I Will Survive'...It all goes down easy, but seems muddled and overstuffed. It has already shed 20 minutes in previews but could profitably lose a few more, preferably in the first act." Full Review

"Attempts to tell the forgotten tales of the haunted and the hunted, and all those who came from far off lands to build, populate and protect this country’s frontiers…The sad part is, there is so much talent on the stage. But the staging is static, and the book and the plot are confusing, juvenile, and don’t accomplish Childs’ lofty ideas. She’s not offering empowering alternative archetypes, she’s regurgitating stereotypes.” Full Review

“‘Bella: An American Tall Tale,’ book, music and lyrics by Kirsten Childs, is a rambunctious, sexy new musical at Playwrights Horizons. Ms. Childs, whose ‘The Bubbly Brown Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin’ (2000) will be restaged this summer as part of the Encores! Off-Center series, has written an adventurous musical which occasionally sags a bit, but is always sassy and lively.” Full Review

“The story unfolds in a picaresque, somewhat rambling style that can be hard to follow, while the intertwining of song and exposition often feels a little loose. But Childs and director Robert O’Hara never cease to conjure an anarchic sense of freewheeling theatricality that blends irreverent pastiches of racist motifs with pungent doses of toilet humor…As Bella, Kelley combines a confident and witty playing style with a rich contralto that soars through Childs’s eclectic numbers.” Full Review

“The music and songs (all Ms. Childs') are delightful—traditional old Broadway style, toe tappin' and fun. The dancing is strong despite the tiny stage…Bella has the vocal cords of a giant and a personality to match. One thing's for sure, Ms. Childs infuses the fun and frivolity with serious undertones of race and freedom and gender equality, so that even a play set in the late 1870s crackles with fresh perspectives. Playwrights was right to end their season with this gem.” Full Review

"Childs has concocted a gloriously overstuffed fantasia...A festive but meaningful salute to the indomitable perseverance and strength of American black women...In director O’Hara, she has found an interpreter who seems to be unfailingly attuned to her wildest flights of imagination...The author is also blessed with a cast that virtually explodes with talent...There is at times almost too much incident to keep straight...But when there is too much, it is too much of a good thing." Full Review

"Dramaturgically speaking there are some bumps, particularly in the second act. I saw the show early in its run, and there are a couple of numbers that stop the show in the wrong way; they seem out of place and/or aren't the full-fledged 11 o'clock numbers they aim to be. Still, I was taken with this celebration of a different take on beauty...'Bella' is telling another American story, not just by people who aren't usually in the story but about people who aren't usually part of the story." Full Review

"Wild West stories are a dime a dozen, but I can guarantee that you’ve never seen anything fresher or more completely original as Kirsten Childs’ 'Bella'...Childs takes her piece even further with social, racial, and political commentary—and she does it in such a crafty way that leaves audiences both entertained and richly nourished...The show moves along at a solid pace and musically, it offers some terrific tunes...Childs could easily tighten her material with a few cuts." Full Review

"Kelley’s Bella is delightful. Wide-eyed with a high-pitched voice, she’s innocence personified, with a tee hee giggle that makes her seem like a child...'Tall Tale' gets a little unwieldy here and there, but for the most part director Robert O’Hara keeps it on track...'Bella, an American Tall Tale' is, for the most part, a study in frivolity that sometimes lights up the stage and sometimes doesn’t." Full Review

"For all the reservations I have—and I have plenty—about Kirsten Childs’s 'Bella,' I can’t help admiring the piece, laughing and smiling over various bits of it, and applauding Childs’s undaunted, apparently borderless ambition. 'Bella' is way too much of a good thing...Robert O’Hara, a skilled and sensitive director, has carefully balanced the work’s vast number of competing elements. The problem simply lies in the fact that Childs has provided so many competing elements." Full Review

"The tone of 'Bella' veers from cheerfully tongue-in-cheek to just plain vulgar, from wildly inventive to hackneyed...Director Robert O’Hara has not imposed an overarching tone on Childs’ material. The first act is sluggish...It’s a hodgepodge of tropes, stereotypes, and flights of fancy...Act II benefits from some bouncier songs in the score…Happily, Kelley and Gill have excellent chemistry, as well as strong second-act numbers, so one eventually becomes invested in their working things out." Full Review

"Childs leaves loose ends flapping all over the place, and you'll stop counting the number of times the narrative just halts dead in its tracks to make room for another diversion. But those diversions are, let's admit, frequently diverting, and even as we're shaking our heads at the looseness of Childs's conception and the illogic of what little story there is, we're entertained...The cast is splendid...Fun and celebratory as much of it is, 'Bella' is one sloppy American tall tale." Full Review

“The show never sets on a consistent tone, nor does it successfully bring all the disparate strands of the story together. The result is episodic, sprawling, and wan…The whimsy of Childs’ story falls a bit flaccid in O’Hara’s static treatment of the material. The second act is especially loose, and could easily have been trimmed by 20 to 30 minutes…Child’s lyrics show considerable craft…There’s enough here in 'Bella' to make me hope that Childs keeps writing." Full Review

"Childs’ imaginative book is just as wild as her heroine’s—and her songs are often tuneful charmers boosted by witty lyrics...Under Robert O’Hara’s bouncy direction the 12-person cast embraces a show that kicks at some serious issues about the African American experience even as it indulges in scatological humor...But...Childs’ show is truly overstuffed. At two and a half hours, it just packs in too many characters who are introduced and just as quickly dispatched." Full Review

"'Bella' succeeds as a delightfully imaginative, spirited story that fuses reality and fiction to such a degree that we're not entirely sure which is which—or if it even matters. Kelley leads a cast brimming with energy and enthusiasm...A wild, whimsical ride filled with moments of extreme silliness. Not that that's a bad thing—actually, I think we probably need more silly theatre. And this particular brand of endlessly clever, satisfying silliness strikes just the right chord." Full Review

"There’s so much to like! The cast for one thing...Some of the songs are simply wonderful...Story and character and craft and skill and meaning add up to crap...Director O’Hara has to work a damn hard to make this 'tall tale' make some kind of sense. He only partway succeeds...A show that can’t make up its mind whether it’s serious or comic...But it’s fun and it’s tuneful and silly, and if you don’t mind not being able to figure it all out, it’s worth seeing just for the splendid performances." Full Review