Betty Boop Lands on Broadway

Following on the high heels of the 2023 hit film “Barbie,” “Boop! The Musical” likewise aims to remake and rebrand another dated pop character for contemporary times and audiences.

Unlike Barbie, who has had a ubiquitous cultural presence for decades, Betty Boop is a Depression-era cartoon character of a jazz-age flapper, and in looks, attitude and style, she is of her time — not to say dimension.

She was created by men and animated by their fantasies, a slightly surreal character, with an oversized, babydoll of a head, bee-stung lips, curvaceous bod, and a cutesy voice with the coy catchphrase “boop-oop-a-doop.” Many know her now as a camp curiosity or, more likely, that Macy’s parade balloon.

Like “Barbie,” “Boop!” goes on a dual-reality journey of transformation, and along the way boasts an upbeat score, terrific dance numbers, and delightful designs. Sometimes that’s enough, at least for live mainstream entertainment with girl-empowerment themes, aimed at family-centric markets and with great merchandizing potential. Other times it just feels like a knockoff.

The book by Bob Martin travels between Betty’s cartoon world and the real one — or at least the world of musical comedy (which isn’t all that real anyway). But Martin’s script has little of the wit and originality which propelled his clash-of-worlds scripts for “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “The Prom.” His “Boop” book only elicits the occasional big laugh, amid the winks, wordplay and folderol.

Certainly he had his work cut out for him. Betty is a character without much character, or you could say just too many characters — something to which Barbie can relate. Betty’s multitude of nutty roles during her decade-long heyday is cleverly addressed head-on in a snappy opening number in the all-black-and-white, lingo-spouting, cartoon world of the Fleischer Studios of the ‘30s. (David Rockwell’s retro designs are pretty nifty.)

Betty (Jasmine Amy Rogers, making a smashing Broadway bow) belts out the number for her latest animated short as she comically switches from one persona to another: She’s a cowgirl! A pilot! A babe warding off the wolves! But later when a reporter asks: “Who is the real Betty Boop?,” her tepid response — “Whoever you want me to be” — sends Betty into a funk, if not an existential crisis. Shaken and tired of the showbiz grind from the fun factory, she needs a break.

In cartoonland, anything is possible — and nonsensical. An interdimensional teleportation gizmo, invented by her eccentric co-star Grampy (Stephen DeRosa), sends Betty to the vibrantly colored world of 2025 Manhattan where she lands at a Comic Con convention, complete with its cosplaying crowd. Fitting right in, she’s befriended by Trisha (Angelica Hale), a teenage Betty Boop super-fan.

At first it’s all bewildering to Betty, then wondrous as she takes in her colorful surroundings, her new friend and a potential love interest in Trisha’s brother, a jazz musician named Dwayne (Ainsley Melham).

Meanwhile, Toontown is in a panic from the disappearance of its star attraction. Grampy and pooch Pudgy (a marvelous puppet, mastered by Philip Huber) are transported to the New York present to bring her back.

The alternating worlds are meant to be playful, but Toontown especially gets exhausting quickly, with characters mugging, clowning and amplifying every limp punchline. But the real world is not much subtler, limiting the emotional weight the show might have.

There’s also a throwaway subplot with Grampy reuniting with Valentina (Faith Prince), an astrophysicist he met and fell in love with during a long ago tele-trip. Then there’s Trish’s Aunt Carol (Anastacia McCleskey), who is mayoral campaign manager for Raymond Demarest (Erich Bergen), a sleaze who gloms onto Betty’s popularity once her identity is revealed.

Will Aunt Carol supplant Raymond as the candidate? Will Trish go to art school and Dwanye get a steady gig at a nightclub? Will Betty return to Toontown? One’s interest in any of these answers depends on a tolerance for corn and patience until the musical numbers.

That’s when Jerry Mitchell’s choreography kicks in with the ensemble in top, tip-tap form. The score — with music and arrangements by David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and orchestrations by Doug Besterman — is tuneful, fizzy and fun.

Rogers is a delightful embodiment of Betty, a cartoon that she makes just human enough with warmth, vulnerability and pluck. (Credit also goes to Sabana Majeed’s spit-curl wigs and hair design, Michael Clifton’s make-up and Gregg Barnes’ costumes.)

Melham’s adorable real-world Dwayne may be as two-dimensional as Betty but at least he can show off a splendid voice and elegant dance moves in “She Knocks Me Out” and shares with Betty the knockout song “Why Look Around the Corner” and the hot bandstand number “Where I Wanna Be.”

Prince’s character is nebulous but at least she elevates a couple of tunes. Bergen (TV’s “Madame Secretary”) is a hoot as a variation of the drooling men from Betty’s cartoons. As Trish, the 17-year-old Hale (a finalist in “America’s Got Talent”) is a dynamo with impressive power notes — though sometimes overpowering too many of them. In a bit role, Morgan McGhee delivers big laughs with her loopy take as a newscaster.

“Boop!” shows that cartoon makeovers may be an enticing novelty, but to really succeed it first needs to be well drawn.