Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

With a beaming white smile and a cheeky glint in its eye, this extravaganza of lusting and thrusting unspectacularly pushes the boundaries of good taste

★★★
archive review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
33328 large
39658 original
Published 05 Aug 2007

There are some who would argue that the original Debbie Does Dallas film could not be improved upon. A finely-tuned porn masterpiece, it had everything: a bevy of spandex-clad beauties, jock straps, and most of all, good volume in the hair-dos. It lacked only one thing: a musical number. Luckily for all concerned, some visionaries have now set out to fill this aching void in our cultural landscape. By doing so, they have created one of the few plays that can boast both powerful ballads of teenage woe and hard-hitting dialogue such as, “I can almost see her panty hamster.”

While telling its tale of one cheerleader's quest to go to Texas, this extravaganza of lusting and thrusting pushes the boundaries of good taste, star-jumping straight over the line and high-kicking its way into the realm of the down right smutty. But with a beaming white smile on its face and a cheeky glint in its eye, it ensures that it remains tongue-in-cheek, never quite descending into the outright sleazy. With more sexual innuendoes than you can shake a pompom at, this play delivers pretty much exactly what you would expect – a bit of unspectacular, light filth but with some strong vocal performances to boot. After witnessing lines such as: “Dick’s been eating sushi from the barber’s floor,” I’d question whether anyone will look at their Sainsbury’s sushi-box in quite the same way again.