‘Romy & Michelle’: Film fave now a musical

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: Laura Bell Bundy & Kara Lindsay. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

ROMY & MICHELE: THE MUSICAL
Book by Robin Schiff
Music & lyrics by Gwendolyn Sanford & Brandon Jay
Based on the motion picture Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion
& the stage play, Ladies Room, by Robin Schiff
Directed by Kristin Hanggi
Through November 30, 2025
Stage 42
422 West 42^nd Street
https://romyandmichelethemusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

The 1997 cult classic Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion forms the basis for Romy & Michele: The Musical. The film starred Mira Sorvino as Romy and Lisa Kudrow as Michele, two lovably ditzy, underachieving California girls who have been friends since their high school days in Arizona. Now, 28 years later, the film has been adapted into a splashy Off-Broadway musical.

Tricky business

Musical stage adaptations of hit movies are tricky business. Producers love them because musicals based on popular films have a built-in audience. However, the finished product does not always live up to everyone’s expectations.

Romy & Michele sticks to the film’s plot and even includes much of the same dialogue. Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion was a short 90-minute movie, but here it’s been stretched and padded out to a two and a half-hour musical (with intermission).

The story

For those who haven’t seen the movie, here’s a synopsis.  Romy White (Laura Bell Bundy) and Michele Weinberger (Kara Lindsay) are both friends and roommates in Los Angeles. They get invited to their 10-year high-school reunion in Arizona. Romy works as a cashier at a Jaguar dealership and Michele is unemployed. They are apprehensive going back to high school, a place where they felt they didn’t fit in. To boost their confidence, they concoct an absurd fib about how they “invented” Post-It Notes. The film told the story by juxtaposing flashbacks from high school with scenes from their present-day life in L.A. seamlessly. For the musical, the narrative has been changed slightly. Act one is mostly flashbacks to their high-school days and act two includes a road trip to the reunion.

Some songs sound like padding

The musical features a first act that is a flashback to their high school years, with the second act mostly about their trip to the reunion and what happens at the big event.

The score by Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay is energetic but mostly forgettable. At times, songs like “Everybody Wants Somebody” and “I Feel Fulfilled” seem like padding that bog down the narrative and fail to propel the story forward.

The second act opens with “Businesswomen’s Special,” a pointless number that fails to enhance one of the film’s funniest moments. In the movie, Romy and Michele enter a roadside diner on the way to the reunion. An older waitress takes their order.  Both in the film and the musical, Romy and Michele are dressed in sexy, black business attire. Romy asks the waitress if they have a “businesswomen’s special” because, as Michele adds, “we’re businesswomen from L.A.” The scene is hilarious in the film because the older “hash-slinging”  waitress gives a confused look to the twentysomething ladies and quips “we don’t have anything like that” and soon asks “what kind of business you in?” It’s a truly iconic moment in the film.

The joke and the punch line bomb, however, in the musical because the waitress is played by a young woman (Ninanko Donville) about the same age as Romy and Michele and just as attractive and fresh-faced as them. The song’s lyrics are not nearly as funny as the scene in the movie, so the whole production number falls flat.

Heather’s show-stopping song

Ironically, it’s neither the two heroines that have the musical’s best song. Heather (Jordan Kai Burnett) is the sarcastic, cynical woman (played by Janeane Garofolo in the film) who chain-smokes and invents Lady Fair cigarettes. “Twice the taste in half the time for the gal on the go,” she says. “I invented the quick-burning paper.” Heather’s angst-ridden ballad “Love Is” at the end of act one is the highlight of the show.

Ms. Burnett as Heather sings in a marvelously husky voice, “You can count on a cigarette/Its taste consistently divine/Like a pale thin flammable lover/Seductive/So refined/When I smoke, I’m a femme fatale/I’m French/I’m Lauren Bacall.” It’s so wonderfully over the top and campy, with red lighting, like a parody of a song from Chicago.

The reunion

The musical reaches its climax when Romy and Michele arrive at their reunion at Sagebrush High in Tucson, Arizona. Michele runs into the popular, air-headed mean girls who used to tease her in school, especially Christie (Lauren Zakrin). Michele tells the fabricated story about inventing Post-It Notes in the song “I Invented Post-Its.” Soon, Heather exposes the lie and Romy and Michele have a fight. They soon reconcile and go tell off Christie and her clique.

Will the musical please diehard Romy & Michelle fans?

Diehard fans of the film and those who simply want to see an escapist musical will enjoy this adaptation. The first act drags with too many throwaway songs but the musical fortunately redeems itself in the second act, and the songs do get better indeed. Ms. Zakrin as the villain Christie has a fine voice and is delightful when singing “I Feel Fulfilled” and “Christie’s Big Speech.”

Stage veteran Laura Bell Bundy is consistently funny and spot on as Romy, doing a great imitation of Mira Sorvino’s nasally voice in the film. As Michele, Kara Lindsay has good chemistry with her co-star and is charmingly vacuous. One cannot help rooting for them.

Director Kristin Hanggi does a good job of keeping everything true to the beloved movie. She helps extracts noteworthy performances from many cast members, including Ms. Burnett as Heather, Ms. Zakrin as Christie, Pascal Pastrana as Christie’s husband Billy, and Je’ Shaun Jackson as Toby, the school yearbook editor who finally comes out of the closet.

Did we really need a musical version of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion? Probably not. Is it a perfect show? No, but it has enough laughs, colorful characters and gleeful 1990s nostalgia to please fans and warm up these dreary late-fall nights.

Published November 4, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on November 1, 2025

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: Laura Bell Bundy, Ninanko Donville & Kara Lindsay. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: Jordan Kai Burnett & cast. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: (Clockwise from top left): Kara Lindsay; Je’ Shaun Jackson; Michael Thomas Grant; Je’ Shaun Jackson & cast. Photos: Valerie Terranova.

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: Laura Bell Bundy & Kara Lindsay. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘ROMY & MICHELE’: Michael Thomas Grant & Jordan Kai Burnett (top row); Laura Bell Bundy & Kara Lindsay (center, bottom row). Photo: Valerie Terranova.