It\u2019s slightly misleading for Happiness \u2013 billed as New Zealand\u2019s first musical television series \u2013 to start with something as daggy as an airport flashmob set to the Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n
Not only is this six-episode comedy much sharper than its dated intro to Everybody (Backstreet\u2019s Back) suggests, it\u2019s not a jukebox musical, either.<\/p>\n
Beyond its opener, Happiness is made up of quirky, charming original numbers taken from The Trojan Horse \u2013 the show\u2019s delightfully janky musical-within-a-musical put on by amateur society Pizazz. No boyband can compete with a real estate agent playing Helen of Troy belting, \u201cWon\u2019t you be my Troy boy\/not some typical toy boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Happiness is well aware of its opening\u2019s cringe factor. For one, it\u2019s written all over the face of flashmob target Charlie (Harry McNaughton) as he gawps at a wild display of awkward limbs and thrusts led by his doting mum and Pizazz owner Gaye (Rebecca Gibney).<\/p>\n
Behind the glitter and hot glue, the show centres on this mother-son relationship damaged by Charlie\u2019s barbed distance, leaving his home town Tauranga behind to become a Broadway director. Through the transformative power of a swords-and-sandals musical, can he learn to embrace the earnestness of both amateur theatre and small-town life \u2013 and even find true happiness?<\/p>\n
\u2018A delightfully janky musical-within-a-musical\u2019: a scene from The Trojan Horse. Photograph: HBO Max<\/p>\n
Like many musicals, Happiness\u2019s plot isn\u2019t exactly groundbreaking, but it does offer a melisma of humour, joy and unabashed cheese. Think Schitt\u2019s Creek meets Glee, hand-sewn together with hokey Kiwi charm.<\/p>\n
Charlie, of course, is far from charmed at first. To him, New Zealand\u2019s fifth-largest city is a parochial swamp. He\u2019s only returned from New York to renew his visa, as he\u2019s midway through directing rehearsals with Sally Field for a Broadway revival of Cats (presumably not the recent ballroom-set revival<\/a>).<\/p>\n Ignoring Charlie\u2019s snide jabs, Gaye ropes her son into Pizazz\u2019s first-ever original musical, written by high school music teacher Gloria (Marshayla Christie). Naturally, those visa issues see Charlie stay a little longer than expected, and he\u2019s soon sucked back into the amateur theatre troupe where he was once a star.<\/p>\n McNaughton \u2013 a writer-actor who is well known for appearing in Kiwi soap Shortland Street \u2013 is excellent as Charlie, a prickly, pretentious character who you nonetheless root for even as he\u2019s asking high schoolers to identify the \u201cerogenous zone\u201d of a scene. Moments of calm and connection, such as rehearsals coaxing out a teenager\u2019s talents, remind both him and the audience of an inner softness otherwise calloused as a survival mechanism.<\/p>\n \u2018A prickly, pretentious character who you nonetheless root for\u2019: Charlie (Harry McNaughton, right). Photograph: Andi Crown\/HBO Max<\/p>\n McNaughton\u2019s given a lot to play off, too. Like any amateur production, Pizazz\u2019s ramshackle rec centre is home to a world of power plays, ballooning egos and sexual frisson. As with most \u201cbackstagers\u201d (works centred on the inherent drama of any theatrical production, such as High School Musical, Glee or Smash), Happiness relies on archetypes.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Saved for Later<\/p>\n Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n There\u2019s the tyrannical director and delusional leading lady (Jessie Lawrence), as well as the reluctant-to-perform jock with a natural talent (here, a sparkie, played by Henry Auva\u2019a), the excited ingenue (Melody Lui-Webster) and the overlooked composer who, in creating songs for others, finds her own voice (Christie).<\/p>\n While these characters might feel thin if Happiness was longer, the show simply has no time to spare. With six 20-minute episodes, its script has been economically whittled down; much like Pizazz\u2019s nonexistent budget, it works wonders. The cast chomp into their roles, adding enough weight to their romances, feuds and raison d\u2019Pizazz. (And if you think these archetypes are unrealistic, you\u2019ve never done amateur theatre, which is filled with passionate people who, against their best intentions, crystallise into cliches.)<\/p>\n Happiness\u2019s musical numbers are highlights of each episode. Photograph: Andi Crown Photography\/HBO Max<\/p>\n Happiness\u2019s numbers \u2013 usually one or two each episode \u2013 are highlights too, with the cast belting through The Trojan Horse\u2019s punchy pastiche of current musicals. There\u2019s a dash of Dear Evan Hansen\u2019s pop ballads and Six\u2019s comic take on historic figures \u2013 though Charlie\u2019s quick to correct anyone who declares them Broadway-ready.<\/p>\n What about Gibney? For an international audience, she is likely Happiness\u2019s only familiar face, and it\u2019s sad to say Gaye is a minor character in the show. She is often present but quiet, an ever-sunny people-pleaser who puts her own views and life to the side.<\/p>\n When Gaye does reach breaking point towards the show\u2019s end, you can\u2019t help but wish she cracked open earlier. Perhaps it\u2019s hinting at what\u2019s to come, with season two already in the works. Gibney taking centre stage? That\u2019s one way to ensure Happiness keeps living up to its title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s slightly misleading for Happiness \u2013 billed as New Zealand\u2019s first musical television series \u2013 to start with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-242652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}