"Saved!" the 2004 movie deftly dissected teen culture and Christian zealotry, but the NY Times review of the new Broadway show based on the indie film says its lost its bite in favor of a more sugary coating.
I loved the film "Saved!" and Macaulay Culkin did a fabulous job as the sarcastic wheelchair user, Roland, who falls in love with the bad girl Jewish student, Cassandra, at the Christian high school attended by all the characters.
Here's what I wrote about it in a review in Disability Studies Quarterly:
Roland is established early as a sarcastic cynic (but not in the vein of a bitter disabled person) because he doesn't buy into the extreme version of Christianity practiced by his sister and others at the high school. Roland finds his soulmate in the person of Cassandra Edelstein (Eva Amurri), the only Jewish person at the school and who is there because she has been kicked out of every other school in town. She and Roland build a bond as outsiders and they also become a source of support for the new outsider, Mary, when she feels Jesus betrayed her by allowing her to get pregnant. The Roland-Cassandra relationship is a step forward in disability imagery. He is never pathetic or pitiable, and although she is a rebel, Cassandra makes it clear she is not with him as a form of rebellion. When Mary asks her if it bothers her that Roland can't walk, Cassandra explains, "He gets me and I get him."
As the NYT explains, the film dealt with "Christian youth struggling with big issues of faith and identity, sex and love, and prom dates," and I would add it also dealt with homophobia and what true Christian behavior is.
The talented theater trio of Michael Friedman, music composer who is the house composer for the excellent Civilians troupe (Go see the brilliant "Gone Missing" if you ever have the chance.) and Rinne Groff, who wrote the book with John Dempsey, whose work has been produced at the Public Theater and Performance Space 122.
But the Times questions "Saved!" the musical's loss of irreverence: "Why does 'Saved" have the same sweet, sanitized flavor of so many market-tested, formula-born Broadway musicals these days? Why does it often feel like 'Legally Blonde,' only with, like, Jesus freaks?"
