Pity the cheerleader. Depending on your former place in the hierarchy of high school cliques, it might not be the easiest thing to do. Even though they rule the school, cheerleaders don’t fare as well in pop culture: They’re the unattainable ice queens, manipulative sex kittens, the mean girls, the — spell it out now! — D-U-M-B [clap] B-L-O-N-D-E-S.
But there’s one allegation that’s no longer hurled at these pom-pom-waving archetypes: They aren’t competing in a genuine sport. Rarely now will you find a depiction of a cheerleader as a subservient pom-pom-waving girlfriend to the quarterback rather than a tough and intensely focused athlete — and that’s due, in part, to the 2000 Kirsten Dunst film “Bring It On,” now adapted into a Broadway musical.
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Competitive cheerleading comes to the Great White Way with a new musical based on the 2000 film about a scrappy cheer squad that earns a spot in a national competition. Video courtesy of Bring It On, The Musical.
(Joan Marcus/Joan Marcus) - A Truman High School cheerleader performs a heel stretch in ‘Bring it On: The Musical.’
Though it’s just loosely faithful to the film — a battle of integrity and class tension between an inner city squad and a wealthy suburban one competing for a national trophy — “Bring It On: The Musical” is extremely faithful to the sport. The experience of being a cheerleader, from the breakneck stunts to the bloodthirsty battle for the cheer camp “spirit stick” to the exhilarating feeling of being at the top of the pyramid, is faithfully recreated — and I know, because it was a world I inhabited 10 years ago, as a high school competitive cheerleader.
Call it a bias, or call it a special insight into the show, but my stint as a cheerleader makes me the target audience for “Bring It On.” At a recent Sunday performance at the St. James Theatre in New York, entire squads of girls filled rows in the theater, wearing their school colors and giant hair bows, accompanied by Cheer Moms (who, in terms of living vicariously through their daughters, put “Dance Moms” to shame. Don’t worry, though: They’re getting a reality show, too!).
When it eventually tours the country, every teenage girl who is or was or ever wanted to be a cheerleader will line up for tickets to this show, and will see themselves in Campbell’s shoes. She’s the perky blond cheerleader portrayed by newcomer Taylor Louderman, who is elected to lead her suburban high school’s cheerleaders to the championship — until she’s suddenly redistricted to an inner-city school, where she can’t manage to fit in.
But cheerleading is Campbell’s entire life, so she manipulates a hip-hop dance crew run by popular girl Danielle (Adrienne Warren) into becoming a scrappy co-ed cheer squad. She whips them into shape to beat her old team, against whom she harbors a festering grudge, since her replacement captain stole her boyfriend in addition to her position. Her leadership skills are shakier than a novice cheerleader at the top of the pyramid, though, and it all threatens to come tumbling down before a big showdown at nationals.
Despite the talents of Lin-Manuel Miranda (“In the Heights”) and Jeff Whitty (“Avenue Q”), the book, lyrics and forgettable pop and hip-hop-infused music of “Bring It On” may not win it a broad audience beyond the learner’s permit set. It is a high school musical, after all, so it inhabits the realm of the trivial and cloyingly sweet — but its stunts are top-notch and more like Cirque Du Soleil than anything else you’ll see in the theater. The show hired a dozen former college cheerleading champions for the ensemble and cheer coaches to choreograph the stunts and gymnastics, which are among the hardest and most daring performed in the sport. Even the lead actresses go flying through the air, propelled to the top of triple-layered pyramids — which must mean this show has an insurance policy that rivals the beleaguered “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark.”
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