A terrific score in the classic Broadway style distinguishes new musical Beaches, a screen-to-stage adaptation happily heaving with heart and humour. 

Note: having attended an early preview performance, this review is more of a general description of the production rather than a full critique.

Conventional wisdom has it that great musicals are not written, they are rewritten. Beaches the musical first played in the US in the mid-2010s, its progress stymied by the 2015 death of book writer Thom Thomas. 

Iris Rainer Dart, author of the original 1985 novel Beaches, returned to the project, rewriting Thomas’ book and penning lyrics to a new score by legendary songwriter Mike Stoller. 

The highly entertaining result bears a strong resemblance to the cult classic 1988 film Beaches, but shifts the focus of Cee Cee’s success to variety television, where Dart had significant experience, also sharpening the parallels and heightening the conflicts of best friends Cee Cee and Bertie’s lives.

With only two male cast members in the company of twelve, Beaches remains firmly a Women’s Story, but the scenes of classic regional theatre and Cee Cee’s success in gay bathhouses and bars give the story a strong camp aesthetic that cheerfully broadens the appeal. 

Director Lonny Price and co-director Matt Cowart conjure a world of characters from just a handful of (very talented) performers. Energy is kept vibrantly high, mellowing only for the final couple of sombre scenes. Choreographer Jennifer Rias has fun exploring the world of kitsch talent shows and tv variety dance.

Stoller’s music is a joy to hear, especially as performed by a lavish orchestra of 19 musicians, consisting of music director Paul Staroba on keyboard conducting 18 fellow musicians (including a harpist!). Iconic hit “Wind Beneath My Wings” brings the musical to a stirring close, with all other songs being original creations.  

Scenic design by James Noone is relative simple, with beautiful oil painting beach backdrops framed by mobile LCD banners and strips bearing the collage-like projection design of David Bengali.

Costume designer Tracy Christensen collaborates successfully with wig designer J. Jared Janas to conjure the cavalcade of characters, also giving Bertie and Cee Cee each a distinctive look that carries across each of three actresses playing the pair as children, teens, and adults throughout the decades. 

A star is born in Samatha Schwarz, who plays Little Cee Cee with abundant confidence and infectious verve. Zeya Grace has the less showy role as demure Little Bertie and she plays it beautifully. 

Of the two adults, Jessica Vosk again has the showier role as Cee Cee Bloom, a delightfully vulgar force of nature who succeeds in show business by pure determination. Vosk has a powerhouse voice and a terrific gift for comedy that easily overcomes the less likeable aspects of Cee Cee’s personality. 

Kelli Barrett takes Bertie White on a brisk journey from prim and proper prude to free-wheeling woman of the sixties. Barrett makes the most of Bertie’s duets and couple of solos to display a pure legit Broadway voice that has a pleasing power all of its own. 

Beaches needs to overcome a degree of cringe factor as a Broadway title but if the musical finds the right audience it may well go on to be embraced as a very enjoyable guilty pleasure. 

Beaches was reviewed 7.30pm Tuesday 31 March 2026 at Majestic Theatre, New York where it plays until 6 September 2026. For tickets, click here.

Photos of the curtain calls (by the author):