“We don’t just sell products, we sell stories.” That’s the mantra of QVC, the home shopping network as depicted in Joy, the new musical based on the life of Joy Mangano who made a fortune selling her Miracle Mop on the TV channel. You may already be familiar with Joy’s story, which was featured in a 2015 film starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Good storytelling is not only key to selling merchandise, it’s essential to musical theater. And while the production at the Laura Pels Theatre has much to offer – most especially a bravura star turn from Betsy Wolfe – the book by Ken Davenport falls rather short in selling Joy’s rags-to-riches story on the live stage.
It starts on a high note. Set in the early 90’s, the opening number “Welcome to My World” establishes the many challenges Joy faces as a single mom supporting both parents who are separated, her ex-husband and young daughter. It’s Monday morning chaos in their small Long Island home and they’re all counting on Joy to get them through the day. She can barely make ends meet, hates her job, and just wants to pursue her lifetime passion inventing things.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Annmarie Milazzo, credited with music and lyrics, does a terrific job setting up the stakes for Joy in the early scenes. And that opening number is followed by a poignant one “Is This As Good As It Gets?” sung beautifully by Joy’s daughter Christie (Honor Blue Savage) who’s in a perpetual state of disappointment, noting all the times Joy fails to show up at soccer games and can’t afford to pay for school trips.
Joy’s agoraphobic mother Toots (Jill Abramovitz) is no help, constantly complaining about “all the stuff you invented that people don’t need.” Joy’s father Rudy (Adam Grupper) is always asking for money to impress his young girlfriend Lorraine (Jaygee Macapugay), a former schoolmate of Joy’s. And Joy’s ex-husband Tony (Brandon Espinoza) lives in the basement and contributes nothing, an aspiring musician with no prospects.
The true-life tale of a woman who manages to buck tremendous odds to become an entrepreneurial phenomenon is a compelling one…and it is rather miraculous. But we all know how it ends, and in this adaptation, every obstacle is too easily overcome. Just as Joy loses her job and life seems to hit rock bottom, a broken wine bottle and cut finger leads to the invention of a self-wringing mop. Lorraine happens to be wealthy enough to bankroll the manufacturing. When Joy tries to pitch the skeptical QVC bigwigs on her “Miracle Mop”, they inexplicably reverse themselves and give her a shot. And when Joy runs into a patent problem with the threat of bankruptcy, a judge inexplicably rules in her favor.
Cliches aside, Lorin Latarro’s direction is refreshingly inventive, including a mop giveaway. It’s a gimmick but a good one, handing out free mops to lucky audience members. Latarro gets solid performances from the entire cast. And happily, choreographer Joshua Bergasse is given free reign to devise some fun dances for the chauvinistic QVC boys as well as an unscrupulous Texas businessman and his cowboy buddies.
Best of all is Betsy Wolfe’s pitch perfect performance. Just as she dazzled us in & Juliet as Shakespeare’s sardonically feminista wife Anne, she imbues the inventive Joy with warmth, humor and charm. It’s a fully realized, nuanced portrait, with the added benefit of a gorgeous set of belting pipes that enhance the score even when the songs seem to blur into one another.
A lot of talent and money has clearly been spent on this project with likely Broadway aspirations. But I’m not sure why we need another adaptation of Joy’s story. And at two hours plus intermission it just seems too ambitious and over-stuffed for its own good. I think it would be better served on a smaller scale as a 90 minute one act. Selling Joy on Broadway may just take another miracle.
Joy opened July 20, 2025, at the Laura Pels Theater and runs through August 17. Tickets and information: joythemusical.com
