Golf – The Musical

I had high hopes for Golf: The Musical; critics raved about its so-called originality and lauded its ability to turn “mindlessness and predictability into art forms” (NYTimes 2003). The musical was enticing enough in the first ten minutes. The first few songs were catchy and the cast was lively, joking, and charismatic, but the jokes soon became stale and the show quickly descended into tedious, mind-numbing monotony.  The musical was boring and disappointing, and is probably more suitable for younger audiences that would be more appreciative of the loud, over-the-top humor.

The simple cast consists of three men and one woman, all of whom were dressed up in various forms of ludicrous golf-wear, including hideous knee socks and tacky blazers. The show started off with an active dancing number that introduced the show’s topic—the sport of golf. The musical continued with 18 individual vignettes about the sport, with titles that include “Golf’s Such a Naughty Game” and “My Wife and I Make Love Almost Every Day of The Week”. Jokes included political quips and sexually humored jests, all of which I found to be trite and overused. There were the omnipresent lampoons of Sarah Palin’s inability to be Vice President and lame wisecracks that compared the curves of a golf club to those of a woman’s.

Upon waking from a solid ten-minute-long nap in the middle of the performance, I found myself cringing for the next half hour from the triteness of the jokes. Some, like the one about getting “one’s balls into one’s holes”, were so obvious and annoying that I felt myself actually getting embarrassed for the actors. They tried too long and too hard to be funny, and the musical was only the worse for it.

The musical wasn’t completely bad, however. If you disregarded the lyrics, the songs and singing were actually quite good, with memorable beats and inventive dance numbers. The female golfer was definitely the best out of the cast; spunky and hyper, she carried most of the show, and she definitely had the best voice out of the four. The majority of the audience was caught up and laughed along with the actors, and the musical in general was considerably well-planned out and executed.

I left the show unimpressed and disappointed. Perhaps I would have been more distracted if they had done more with the set, but it was just a simple setup that included a screen and two bags of golf clubs. I guess I hadn’t really expected that much from a one-hour-long performance, but the overused humor was just too terrible. The best jokes are often those that are passed off as underhanded, witty quips, and Golf simply tried too hard.