A Wonderful Betsy Wolfe, Mopping Up Mess in JOY — Review

A new musical following the rise of QVC entrepreneur Joy Mangano through her Miracle Mop invention in the ‘90s, Joy is perfectly pleasant. It shares the benefit of having an ultra-charismatic lead with the similar 2015 film – here Betsy Wolfe; there Jennifer Lawrence – but also the overwhelming shrug its existence elicits. If there is a worthwhile angle in Mangano’s life story, it’s not one either project has managed to soak up. Truthfully, outside of its basic thematic restrictions (a working class background and the general, pervasive sexism working against her), her biography is a pretty straightforward journey of idea, obstacle and triumph. The film, I remember at least diving into the corporate chicanery employed to cheat Mangano out of her due profits, and it briefly peeks out in the second act of Ken Davenport’s book for the musical. But neither it, nor AnnMarie Milazzo’s music and lyrics, wring much more from those ideas, which might have lent the story the specificity needed to justify itself. Instead it takes a generic, “er, adulting, right?” derp that flattens everything out for the sake of relatable bonhomie. Waitress, which it apes in tone, score and characterization, was also largely sunny, but profoundly invested in its core darkness. (That musical’s choreographer, Lorin Latarro, here directs.) 

Wolfe, yet again doing God’s work to elevate her material, gets too few moments to shine or let her voice really rip. And, similar to last season’s biomusical Tammy Faye, the central character strikes her deepest chord during brief engagements with the genuine connection felt (and then developed and commercialized) between an everyday woman and her voiceless legion. Mangano’s flock assembled from a shared bond of confining, soul-crushing housework; at least spare my knees from bending over to rinse this mop. Her first successful appearance on QVC, which closes the first act, is shown to reach women through her unmistakably plain desperation and honest understanding of their needs. Witnessing the disenfranchised feel seen and roused to action is moving, and the musical renders this well. That the action in question is that of phoning in an order, or that the commercial revolution it begat could be said to have further ensnared women into the domestic sphere with ShamWows and Shake Weights, makes it an especially American one. But that’s not the mess which Joy seeks to mop up, only the made-for-TV demonstration kind. And did we ever really believe in those? I guess many did, and still might.

Joy is in performance through August 17, 2025 at the Laura Pels Theatre on West 46th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.