Review: The Bodyguard at The Kimmel Center

The Bodyguard starts with a bang, literally, and continues on as a love note to the late Whitney Houston. The Oscar-nominated film is a live stage show starring Deborah Cox as Rachel Maron and Judson Mills as Frank Farmer at the Academy of Music now through February 26th.

The Bodyguard

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About the The Bodyguard: Former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard, Frank Farmer, is hired to protect superstar Rachel Marron from an unknown stalker. Each expects to be in charge; what they don’t expect is to fall in love. A breathtakingly romantic thriller, The Bodyguard features a host of irresistible classics including “Queen of the Night”, “So Emotional”, “One Moment in Time”, “Saving All My Love”, “Run to You”, “I Have Nothing”, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and one of the biggest selling songs of all time – “I Will Always Love You.”

My background of The Bodyguard consists of these facts:

The Bodyguard movie starred Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner
They fall in love and when that love is required to end, Whitney sings “the song”

While I really had no expectations, I was a bit doubtful of HOW The Bodyguard would play onstage. It’s like a love letter to fans of Whitney Houston’s music with fantastic supporting cast telling the story of two people who fall in love.

The beginning of the first act was a little rough and choppy; the stage play assumes that the audience has familiarity with the movie and the characters didn’t feel quite developed. The addition of Whitney’s songs are a great touch and there are some fun moments with her music. However, midway through the first act something clicks and the characters are connected better and they vibe in a way that makes the plot move and make sense.

There is the Frank, Rachel and Nikki triangle. Nikki, Rachel’s sister played by Jasmin Richardson, always feel upstaged by the superstar and develops feelings for Frank but her feelings are ignored as Rachel and Frank becomes closer. Rachel’s need for a bodyguard is makes more sense after she the threats she receives escalates into a meeting with her son Fletcher, played tonight by Douglas Baldeo. The stalker, played by Jorge Paniagua, steals the show with his eerily creepy facade.

My niece Gloria saw the show with me and below are our thoughts. Apologies for the long and uncut video!

If you go, The Bodyguard is playing at the Academy of Music, located at Broad and Locust in Philadelphia.
Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999 or by visiting www.kimmelcenter.org or at the box office.

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