Summary
A new musical based on the true story of Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop. An uplifting tale of resilience, creativity, and the American Dream.
Thursday, July 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM Jul 10, 2025, 8:00 PM
Through the end of the first act, I felt like “Joy” was a bit dull, or maybe just not my cup of tea. There are some nice things about it from a technical perspective—led by a charming star turn from Betsy Wolfe, the cast is solid and well-suited to their roles, there are a couple songs I rather liked, and the choreography is pretty impressive, especially from the QVC execs and when the mops come out.
My first read was that Joy Mangano’s story didn’t have all that much dramatic interest to it. It’s pleasantly heartwarming, but there’s so little tension that I had a flash of a thought that maybe this was a one-act musical. And I might have preferred if it was!
The second act pushes all the chips in on themes of ostensible feminist empowerment, which is to say it beats us over the head with vague girlpowerisms while simultaneously finding a whole bunch of creative ways to strip the protagonist of her agency. Joy starts the show as a hypercompetent-if-overstretched working mom; by the end, she’s able to lift her family out of poverty only by the grace of a few compassionate men.
After the first 20 minutes of exposition, practically every plot point involves men making decisions and Joy reaping the consequences. A man takes a chance on her mop. A man fails to sell it. A man allows Joy to go on TV and hawk it herself, and gives her time to work through her stage fright even when she isn’t making any sales. A man mismanages her finances and conceals his mistakes, putting the business in jeopardy. A predatory cowboy patent troll(?) takes advantage of her lack of capital and tries to extort her and run her out of business. A male judge decides in Joy’s favor over the letter of the law. Are you feeling empowered yet?
The result is thematic whiplash, and I can’t chalk it up to the untidiness of real-life events—a lot of these story beats are fictional and taking serious creative license. The real Joy Mangano’s story is significantly more inspiring for its comparative lack of drama: a self-made entrepreneur finding unqualified success on the strength of her ideas. If that doesn’t map very nicely to dramatic structure without sprinkling in this malicious fabricator cowpoke, maybe she’s not the right subject for a biomusical.
I feel a little bad for disliking “Joy” as much as I did given the quality of the performances and, I guess, the general earnestness. Unfortunately, they’re a bit squandered when the show so relentlessly undermines itself.