The show recently opened at the newly-renovated Palace Theater in New York City
Tammy Faye Bakker, the iconic televangelist who broke through into pop culture with her messages of love and acceptance, is the subject of Elton John’s latest foray into musical theater. With lyrics by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame and a script by James Graham, the musical tells the story of Faye’s rise and fall within the “electric church” — the play’s name for the group of 80’s-era evangelicals who proselytize over the airwaves.
The story’s villain is Jerry Falwell, the ultra-conservative Baptist who looks at Tammy Faye and husband Jim Bakker’s PTL Club as a scourge on Christianity. And amidst this fight for the spiritual soul of America, Tammy Faye battles her lack of self-confidence and a male-dominated industry to rise to evangelical superstardom.
Shears and John make an interesting combination, musically. Shears lyrics run the gamut from heartfelt sincerity (“If Only Love”) to Book of Mormon-esque double entendre (“He’s Inside Me.”).
The first half of the show is dripping with all the cheeseball sincerity of a Branson, Missouri stage show. Because that’s what PTL Club was: A relentlessly positive show that took domestic and cultural issues and framed them under the auspices of God’s love. But on Broadway, the first half can make the audience feel as if the show will never quite get behind Tammy Faye’s mascara eyes to her emotional core.
And then Jim cheats on her.
During “Empty Hands,” the facade comes tumbling down for Tammy Faye right before intermission. For the first time, she sings of grief. Reality has cracked the walls of the Bakker empire.
We come back from intermission to find Faye stronger and more confident in her own as a famous personality. Soon, though, the cracks in the castle grow. Once a news report breaks about Jim Bakker’s Heritage USA Ponzi scheme, Falwell and company move in and strip PTL for bare. Finally, the audience is truly let in behind the scenes of the fraught relationship between husband and wife. Mr. Bakker is sent to prison, and Tammy must navigate life without the man whose power allowed her to flourish. As a woman now alone, she must reckon with a world that never really learned to see her for herself.
It is here where the showstopper, the song that will stick with you long after the lights inside the Palace theater come up, is played. Actress Katie Brayben’s emotional delivery of “If You Came to See Me Cry” earned a standing ovation on its own. It reaches down deep and exposes Tammy Faye (by then, Tammy Faye Messner) as the tragic hero she had been all along.
The show is closing due to poor sales, which is a shame. Reviewers were right to question the pacing of the show and tonal inconsistencies. “He’s Inside Me” in particular does not fit the authenticity this show is trying to achieve. And the story beats that tell how the PTL network rose fly by so fast, one must go into the musical with a near-complete understanding of the Bakkers’ story.
But these are structural issues. The story is still important, and one that deserves to be on Broadway, a bigger-than-life for a bigger-than-life person. In a world so divided by politics, identity, and yes religion, Tammy Faye reminds us that if you love yourself, you can get through anything.
