The Bodyguard musical is a glorified Whitney Houston hit parade
Other than the music, how much do you really remember about the 1992 film The Bodyguard? That’s just as well, because the hotly controversial – critically anyway – musical The Bodyguard has more of what you bought the ticket for, namely Whitney Houston’s music. Make no mistake, the one thing the critics can agree on is that this is a jukebox musical, and all that entails – a weak, patchy story that is nothing more than excuse for a string of hits, although this string is longer than most. Where the voices differ is on just how much fun it is.
The story is simple – maybe too simple. Rachel Marron (Carole Stennett) is a luminescent pop diva with an Oscar nomination, and a stalker determined to stop this from happening. Against her instincts, she hires Frank Farmer (Stuart Reid), a strong silent former Secret Service agent. Both initially recoil; she wants no artificial restraints and he loathes pop-style excess, but nevertheless they rapidly and inexplicably fall in love.
But not without some bumps along the way. For starters, Nicki Marron (Emmy Willow) thinks her younger sister Rachel’s fame is undeserved; this sibling rivalry is only elevated with Nicki’s unrequited love for Farmer, illustrated when she sings him ‘Saving All My Love For You’ at her club performance. Then there’s Farmer and Marron’s workaholic tendencies, which for some reason negate a relationship but did create Houston’s greatest hit, her supermassive cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’. Interestingly, Parton’s sweet, low-key version was written for her partner and mentor from whom she was professionally splitting, while Houston’s version has become a wedding favourite for couples that don’t bother to listen to the words.
Then there’s the stalker (Joel Elferink), appearing in video projections looking vaguely menacing. He sends Rachel threatening letters, sneaks into her son’s bedroom, [SPOILER ALERT] kills her sister, and crashes the Academy Awards with a gun, which might raise questions about Farmer’s ability to protect anyone.
But no one sees a jukebox musical for the story, and as a parade of Whitney’s greatest hits, this is a good one. Rachel and her young son sing ‘How Will I Know?’ and ‘Jesus Loves Me’ together, and Frank’s tuneless rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ on their karaoke date gives it significance for Rachel’s finale. She then performs ‘I Have Nothing’ and ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ for the excited bar patrons. Other songs include ‘The Greatest Love of All’, ‘I’m Every Woman’, ‘All the Man that I Need’, ‘All At Once’, ‘So Emotional’, and on and on.
While reviewers almost unanimously agree The Bodyguard should be reinvented as a Whitney Houston tribute, that would mean missing the joke about Rachel starring in a musical version of Dances With Wolves, as well as the acid-wash jeggings, and the hot, shirtless chorus men doing Latin dance. Be prepared; The Bodyguard is not about gaining IQ points or unravelling the mysteries of the universe, but for fans of Houston, this might be the guilty pleasure you’ve been looking for.