'Tammy Faye' review — a televangelist takes the stage

Read our review of Tammy Faye on Broadway, a new musical about the real-life televangelist featuring songs by Elton John and Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears.

Like its real-life title character, the Elton John musical Tammy Faye isn’t flawless. But you must admire its flash, energy, and a bright star turn by Broadway newcomer Katie Brayben in the lead role.

But life is about nuance, and that’s tricky to nail in a musical. Director Rupert Goold’s team hasn’t quite gotten there in this take on the tempest-tossed Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. The show often treats the heroine like a cartoon, and that makes for a tonal mismatch that nags.

The book by Ink Tony Award nominee James Graham unfolds as a flashback after Tammy Faye’s cancer diagnosis. Tammy Faye and fellow televangelist Jim Bakker meet, marry, form The Praise the Lord Club in the 1970s, build PTL into a TV empire, and are scandalized by financial fraud. Against steep odds, she maintained her religious work until her death.

John and lyricist Jake Shears, of Scissor Sisters, surround the story in a lively batch of pop-rock and gospel-driven solos, duets, and production numbers. The score could use a breakout song, while Graham's book could use a stronger point of view about Tammy Faye’s role in the ruinous scandal. Her support for LGBTQ+ individuals during the AIDS crisis is also underexplored; rival televangelists get a deeper dramatic dive.

The principal actors deliver. Alongside Brayben, Christian Borle steps up as a clownish Jim Bakker, while Michael Cerveris lends darker streaks as a devilish Jerry Falwell, a fundamentalist Baptist preacher who opposed the Bakkers' approach to religion.

But Tammy Faye is at its best when Brayben, reprising her Olivier Award-winning performance from the show's London premiere, is on stage alone. “Open Hands,” a tune about reaching out, soars. Tammy Faye Bakker’s gift was connecting. One wishes the musical did more of that.

Tammy Faye summary

Tammy Faye Bakker was an American televangelist known for her dramatic makeup and emotional, empathetic style. She co-founded the TV show The PTL Club, which expanded into a network and beyond, with husband Jim Bakker, but their ministry collapsed amid financial and sexual scandals. Later, she reemerged as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Bakker’s roller coaster of a story has been told on screen a few times, most recently in the Oscar-winning 2021 film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The musical rendition of her life arrives on Broadway following a 2022 world premiere in London.

What to expect at Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Bakker’s fame and fortune was made through TV, and television is the primary visual theme of the production. Bunny Christie’s scenic design uses a massive seven-by-six Hollywood Squares-like grid of TV sets throughout the show. Tammy Faye is often projected onto the sets, multiplying and magnifying her image.

Christie's set recall the 1960s sketch comedy show Laugh In, which often used a distinctive grid-like set with colorful windows that allowed actors to pop in and out for rapid-fire punchlines and visual gags. Characters including puppets and popes appear in this way throughout the 2.5-hour Tammy Faye musical. The device is initially striking, but it becomes a bit repetitive.

What audiences are saying about Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye has an audience approval rating of 54% on the review aggregator Show-Score.

• “Musical about the rise and fall of televangelists like Jerry Falwell told thru story of rise and fall of Tammy Faye Bakker w Jim Bakker. Pros: Katie Bray[b]en is utterly persuasive as Tammy Faye and 1st is engaging. Some of the tunes by Elton John are winning.” Show-Score user Bruce 6
• “Tammy Faye takes a true story and brings it to life. Even though I lived through the story I did not know it ... and the way it is told is wonderfully done … The show has the feel of Broadway which is missing from so many shows these days.” Show-Score user Stacy Kap
• “A cute not too serious fun show with some emotional depth. The show is worth a fun night out. The music is catchy and the stage set and effects are dazzling … some talented singing and acting with great comedic timing.” Show-Score user Joshua Ellingson

Read more audience reviews of Tammy Faye on Show-Score.

Who should see Tammy Faye

• Fans of Elton John’s work on Broadway, which includes The Lion King, Aida, and Billy Elliot: The Musical, won’t want to miss his latest effort.
• The Broadway debut of Jake Shears will be catnip to followers who know him only as the vocalist for Scissor Sisters.
• Devotees of life stories will be interested in how Tammy Faye Bakker — played in the past by Bernadette Peters, Jessica Chastain, and Bakker herself in a documentary — will be keen to see Katie Brayben’s portrait.

Learn more about Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Bakker was a larger-than-life figure. While the musical doesn’t exactly capture her in all her complexity, strong performances make it worthwhile.

Photo credit: Tammy Faye on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)