'Pretty Woman' musical is enjoyable but the titular woman is all wrong

If you've ever wondered how central Julia Roberts was to the appeal of the rom-com "Pretty Woman," consider the musical adapted from it.

The show, playing at the Orpheum Theatre through Sunday, preserves almost all of the movie's story line. It has bouncy songs, including an improbably entertaining mashup of a power ballad and an aria from "La Traviata." Its choreography wittily incorporates moves from 1980s music videos. And its costumes are like a Merry Go-Round mall store come back to life. It has just about everything, in fact, except Roberts or anyone who can come close to capturing the hoydenish charm that drove the movie.

It's not hardworking Olivia Valli's fault that she is miscast as Vivian, the Roberts role of a prostitute who's tough but tender, uneducated but canny, "blond" but brunette. Valli has a big voice and a brassy persona that would work great for Evita. But "Pretty Woman" needs her to be modest and wide-eyed, colors that do not seem to be in Valli's palette. So we spend most of the show watching her straining to be adorable, a quality that one either has or doesn't.

Viv is the call girl who is plucked off the street by a billionaire industrialist (Adam Pascal, who strongly resembles "Pretty Woman" co-songwriter Bryan Adams) to pose as his date at an event and who ends up falling in love with him. Sure, it's unlikely that something that began as a business transaction would turn into romance but it's no less unlikely than that Pascal would still have the same supple voice he had on the original "Rent" cast album 26 years ago, which he does. It's a fairy tale, so we go with it.

The stage version's best addition is a sort of fairy godfather, dubbed Happy Man, who appears in a number of guises, helping to smooth Viv's journey from hooker to looker. Kyle Taylor Parker, who plays the role, has more personality than everyone else on stage put together. His numbers, which position him as a guide into the show's version of Beverly Hills, are so much fun that it's easy to overlook how they don't serve much narrative purpose. Or that the hideous black palm-tree cutouts in the background would be sent back to the scene shop by any self-respecting high school prom decorations committee.

In Parker's skilled hands, it works. Most of the show does, except the title character, who seems to know it since she introduces herself to us by singing, "I'm really not this girl." She's right. And that's exactly the problem.

'Pretty Woman'

Who: Songs by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. Book by Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton. Directed by Jerry Mitchell.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sun. Ends Feb. 27.

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls.

Protocol: Proof of vaccination or negative COVID PCR test within 72 hours required. Masks required.

Tickets: $40-$139, 1-800-982-2787 or hennepintheatretrust.org.