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Arts & Culture

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

Back in 1978, Debbie Does Dallas was a porn movie about a high school cheerleader who wants to get to Dallas to become a Dallas "Cowgirl." Then, in 2001, Susan L. Schwartz created a musical version for the New York Fringe; it was a hit, and went on to Off-Broadway. Since then, Debbie has "done" many cities all over the world, at last arriving to "do" Philly.

    by Ellen Dunkel
    Published 

Back in 1978,

Debbie Does Dallas

was a porn movie about a high school cheerleader who wants to get to Dallas to become a Dallas "Cowgirl." Then, in 2001, Susan L. Schwartz created a musical version for the New York Fringe; it was a hit, and went on to Off-Broadway. Since then, Debbie has "done" many cities all over the world, at last arriving to "do" Philly.

The plot turns on Debbie's invitation to Dallas - but how to get the money for the trip? The entire cheerleading squad (Kara Senich, Caitlin Elizabeth Reilly, Mara Jill Herman, Alex Keiper, Kathryn M. Lyles) helps her out by starting an agency called "Teen Services," which they perform for their employers with great gusto.

Their boyfriends (Rory X. Donovan, John Greenbaum, Matthew Mastronardi) three football players, each stupider than the next, double and triple as the employers. It's all cheerfully crude and mostly funny.

Dawn Kalani Cowle directs the energetic cast (whose voices are not always up to the task) with heavy-handed vulgarity (this goes way beyond "naughty"). The soft-core choreography (Samuel A. Reyes) sometimes vanishes from view since the venue's sightlines are so difficult and so much of the action takes place on the floor.

- Toby Zinman