I have put up with a lot from the Sex in the City zombie reincarnation, And Just Like That.
I endured Miranda getting banged by Che while Carrie peed herself in the next room during the first season. I made it through last week’s double death of Lisa’s dad (and I don’t buy that the first time she mentions her dad dying was meant to be her stepdad). I’ve even managed not to puke during every Aidan scene this season, even though it was a close call during the car sex scene, which I watched while peeking through my fingers in terror, like it was a scene from a horror movie.
But I cannot get over the latest offense.
In the latest episode, we have the much anticipated appearance of problematic diva, Patti LuPone. Then, the gang throws a birthday party for Charlotte, which, inexplicably, Miranda takes it upon herself to ruin with a karaoke machine. Since when is Miranda a deranged camp counselor? If I were new girlfriend Joy, I’d bail so fast if my significant other tried to force karaoke on a group of our successful, somewhat famous, certainly fancy friends.
As a once and future theater person, there are two types of karaoke theater kids. Type 1: musical theater amateurs who love karaoke and only sing showtunes. A Type 1 will monopolize the mic and sing “For Good” with their best frenemy, which, like Wicked, has the real-life subtext that you’re both sleeping with the same guy but you’re still friends (for legal reasons, this is not based on what I witnessed at a karaoke party in 2014). Type 2: Actual theatee people. They hate karaoke.
Like Lisa’s dad, the SATC cinematic universe has beaten this dead horse trope before. I would like to forget and will never forgive when Carrie and friends sang “I Am Woman” in Sex and the City 2.
However, as a narrative device, karaoke is a great tool when it’s done well. Remember in Gilmore Girls when Lorelai sang “I Will Always Love You” and then Luke showed up and it was DEVASTATING?
The in-store karaoke scene in When Harry Met Sally, in which a playful rendition of “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” is interrupted by the appearance of Harry’s ex? Iconic.
And who can forget Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend’s Wedding winning over the entire bar with her off-key rendition of “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself?”
All this to say AJLT had an opportunity to redeem themselves here, and they squandered it.
You have Patti LuPone on your show. You have karaoke. But you have some Type 1 theater kid rando (Lisa’s son who I feel like I’ve never seen before) singing “I Dreamed a Dream,” a song made iconic in the musical theater lexicon by Ms. LuPone herself. The show doesn’t even have Patti show up at the party yet to react.
I can only dream the dream of the one-liners Patti could have uttered when confronted with the terrible rendition. She shows up after the song. And she never sings, which does track with her character.
That’s not the only problem with the party scene. Not only is Patti LuPone there, but Hamilton’s George Washington himself, Christopher Jackson, is too. Couldn’t he have saved us all from his son by gracing us with his vocal stylings? I’m not saying I need to hear something from Hamilton, but would one song kill us?
These aren’t even the only Broadway legends in the room! Annie Warbucks herself, Sarah Jessica Parker, is the star of the show. Carrie isn’t traditionally a singer, though. However, Miranda, to everyone’s dismay, tries to start up a sing-a-long of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” You mean from the 1985 film starring Sarah Jessica Parker? Again, a missed deep-cut reference.
None of this is the real offense. My problem, which makes this constantly cringe show just too much for me to stand, is that when the EPIC Tony-winning musical theater belting diva Bonnie Milligan, finally, FINALLY takes the mic, and is absolutely killing it, people aren’t paying attention to her. Granted, she gets applause after, but the main characters are all having side convos instead of basking in the wonder and glory of hearing her live. If I were at that party, I would be sat.
Underutilizing your musical theatre legends is an aggression that will not stand, man.
Hey, AJLT? Be more like your sister, The Gilded Age. They’ve been consistently giving us meal after meal of musical theatre lore—Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell Ragtime reunion?! Andrea Martin leading a seance! Victoria Clark has entered the chat! And the greatest line in TV history, Kelli O’Hara saying, “When I bedecked myself in these geegaws.”
Just you wait, Henry Higgins, to see who shows up at the wedding.
I was surprised to be so itchy with rage at an episode so blissfully Aidan-free. My Aidan-stanning mother would be rolling in her grave if she were alive to witness the abomination this character has become. But even with him ensconced off screen, And Just Like That still managed to take something wonderful (Bonnie Milligan) and squander it.
And I don’t believe for one second that hot British writerman thought Carrie’s historical fiction was good.
