Qulture Magazine

I Was a Teenage She Devil is a 95-minute musical following nerdy Nancy Nelson and her friend Debbie in a campy 80’s nondescript American High School. Nancy yearns for popularity and love after being made a fool of by muscle-bound Meathead, Big Rod and turns to the devil for help. Hijinks ensue, arms, legs, testicles and a severed head fly, and in the end the love she was looking for had really been right in front of her the whole time.

Roughly 25 minutes, I had many thoughts and feelings about this show which could only be described as particularly uncouth. I wasn’t happy, I had felt quite underwhelmed and defeated by the show and saw it with the same vitriol that I believe I would see the eponymous devil in the title. But then, something changed. The show gripped me – roughly around the time Mrs bulge showed up. The plot – which had seemed predictable – threw me for a loop, and I was dumbfounded.

I Was a Teenage She Devil deserves a bigger budget – a bigger stage (and most certainly a better sound system). The choreography was phenomenal, as were the costumes and the vocal performances of the cast.  As much as I can gush over the show, there are still a few grumbles which are worth a mention. The queer undertones were poorly developed through the story, and the 95 minutes the show ran for felt somewhat over bloated with songs – who could imagine, a musical with too much music??! Exposition scenes were lacking, there was a lot of good writing there that made IWATSD seem as if Ferris Bueler met Napoleon dynamite and they gave birth to some sort of mutant high school musical that was perverted in the womb by a force beyond god, to be the ultimate “Anti-curricular” Riverdale Esque performance piece. Regardless, the musical was phenomenal, and it deserves love.