“Beaches” Struggles to Make a Splash on Broadway as Stage Musical Can't Find the Wind Beneath Its Wings

The Broadway adaptation of Beaches opened on Wednesday, April 22 at the Majestic Theatre in New York City

NEED TO KNOW

• Based on Iris Rainer Dart's novel and the 1988 film, Beaches features a score by Grammy Award-winning legend Mike Stoller with lyrics by Dart

• Jessica Vosk plays Cee Cee Bloom and Kelli Barrett's Bertie White, the characters created on screen by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey

There’s a version ofBeachesthat works so beautifully onstage, you can almost feel it. The bones are there: a decades-spanning friendship, two actresses with real vocal firepower and a story that has already proven it can leave audiences in pieces.

Butin its current Broadway incarnation, which officially opened on Wednesday, April 22 at the Majestic Theatre in New York City,Beachesstruggles to translate that emotional legacy into something theatrically satisfying.

Based on Iris Rainer Dart’sNew York Timesbestselling novel that became a beloved 1988 film starringBette MidlerandBarbara Hershey, the musical arrives with built-in goodwill and high expectations it can never quite meet.

The plot remains intact, tracinga friendship between Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White— two women who move from childhood pen pals to roommates, rivals and lifelong confidantes before their soaring story ends in devastating loss.

It’s a framework that practically begs for a cathartic night at the theater. Instead, what unfolds is curiously muted.

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Jessica Vosk, a theater veteran originating her first Broadway role here, brings undeniable presence as Cee Cee. She funny and charismatic, leaning into the character’s brash boldness and big-voiced personality. And she does the seemingly impossible: channeling Midler’s spirit without veering into imitation.

In the show’s lighter moments, she’s genuinely engaging — funny, warm, and fully in command of the stage. You understand why people are drawn to Cee Cee, even when she’s at her most self-involved.

Stage starKelli Barrett, as Bertie, is given far less to work with, sadly. And it shows.

The character feels sketchily drawn, more a collection of traits than a fully realized person. She's often reacting to Cee Cee, rather than acting on her own. Most puzzling is the musical’s decision to sideline Bertie vocally; she doesn’t receive a true defining number before her death, which leaves a gaping emotional hole at the center of the story.

For a narrative built on the push and pull between two women, the imbalance is hard to ignore.

That imbalance extends to the score, too. Despite the pedigree — music by Grammy Award-winning legend Mike Stoller with lyrics by Dart — the songs rarely linger. They do their job in the moment but fail to build a musical identity or deepen character in a meaningful way.

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By the time the story reaches its most famous emotional beat, it’s still searching for the resonance it needs.

All of which puts enormous pressure on “Wind Beneath My Wings,” the show’s climactic centerpiece.

It doesn't help theBeachesbegins its best song with a performance by Samantha Schwartz and Bailey Ryon, who play Little Cee Cee and Teen Cee Cee, respectively. Their presence throughout the show — alongside Zeya Grace and Emma Ogea, as Little Bertie and Teen Bertie — is otherwise well-used, especially the spunky Schwartz, who steals every scene she's in. But here, it opens the number on a cheesy note that undercuts the lift Vosk is trying to build.

Vosk sings it well from there on out. She's technically assured and vocally rich. But the performance never quite unlocks the vulnerability and grounded emotion that made the song iconic in the first place.

The result is a finale that feels performed rather than lived, landing with respectability instead of devastation. If anything, it reminds you just how masterful Midler's version is (and why it won Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in February 1990).

Beachesbegan performances March 27 and is scheduled to run through Sept. 6 before going on a multi-city national tour.

Sarah Bockel, Harper Burns, Ben Jacoby, Brent Thiessen, Lael Van Keuren and Zurin Villanueva also star.

Directed by Lonny Price (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,Sunset Boulevardwith Glenn Close) and Matt Cowart, the production moves efficiently through the story's many time jumps, but it rarely pauses long enough to let moments breathe. Its book — by Dart and Thom Thomas, developed in collaboration with David Austin — stays true to what fans know, but its emotional peaks arrive without the groundwork needed to support them, leaving the show rushing toward tears it hasn’t fully earned.

That may be the central issue:Beachesis built to be a tearjerker, but this version doesn't quite gets there.

Though initially not embraced by critics, the film became a cultural touchstone because it embraced its sentiment without apology, trusting its characters — and its audience — to feel deeply. Onstage, that emotional clarity feels diluted.

There’s enough talent here to suggest a stronger show could emerge with sharper focus, stronger songs and a more balanced approach to its central relationship. As it stands, though, thisBeachesis washed-up.

Tickets forBeachesare now on sale.

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