Laureano, Lynnea Doublette, Anna Hashizume and Stephanie Cousins in “I am Betty.” (Rick Spaulding/History Theatre)
After its success last season, the History Theatre has brought back the musical “I Am Betty” for a coveted holiday season spot.
The show covers the history of Betty Crocker since its inception in a Washburn-Crosby Company (now General Mills) test kitchen. The name was originally conceived to answer baking and cooking inquiries that were mailed to the company.
Act 1 follows Minnesota native Marjorie Husted (Erin Capello) as she helps launch Betty Crocker, even expanding her voice to the company’s radio station, WCCO.
The musical also delves into Marjorie’s personal life as she battles the pressures of becoming a housewife while building her career. Marjorie tries to make time for her doting husband, Wally, but success seems to find her at every corner, and juggling the two seems impossible.
Capello as Marjorie shines particularly in the beginning of the show’s solo, “Something More.” It’s a take on the classic “I Want” song among the likes of “Part of Your World” and “Belle,” complete with a stunning Broadway belt that gave me tingles.
Equally featured in Act 2 is Lynnea Doublette as Barbaro Jo Davis, one of the first Black women to work in a Betty Crocker kitchen. Much later into the company’s history, Barbara Jo must contend with the overbearing white company executives and her yearning to join her husband’s start-up barbecue business.
These performances are backed up by the ever-costume-changing supporting cast, assisting in other roles when needed.
Most importantly, though, as we follow these women’s lives and their involvement with Betty Crocker, we track the feminist movement — all the way from women gaining the right to vote in 1921, through the four waves of the feminist movement. The book and script written by Cristina Luzárraga aptly acknowledge the strengths and pitfalls of each movement. For example, while white women advocate for their place in the workforce during the second-wave feminist movement, a character says that Black women have held service jobs and supported families the whole time.
“Betty” even introduces “The Feminine Mystique” author Betty Friedan (Jennifer Grimm) at the beginning of Act 2, who is immediately criticized for her sole focus on white, middle-class suburban women.
“Betty”’s momentum is somewhat stifled by clunky lyrics by Denise Prosek, which simplify the plight of women in some decades. One line in the opening number about how women have moved on to panty liners from linen gauze comes to mind.
But these lyrical missteps are played off by the ensemble cast, which is particularly adept at portraying feminism throughout family generations — even if the only two Black women in the cast have to play both mother and daughter and husband and wife.
In particular, Capello and Kiko Laureano portray a Cuban daughter and mother, respectively, who grapple with Betty Crocker’s expectations for women in households. Though teenager Lina promises to never have children, as she grows up, she begins to understand that her soon-to-come place as a woman with children in the workforce is actually a display of feminism.
Overall, “Betty” presents many shockingly complex ideas about the feminist movement in the United States and how women have balanced roles of motherhood and work throughout the last 100-or-so years thanks to the writer-director duo of Luzárraga and Maija García. At its best, it provides a nuanced take on these roles through the lens of the Betty Crocker brand.
“I Am Betty” runs at the History Theatre through Dec. 29.
Anya Capistrant-Kinney can be reached at capi2087@stthomas.edu.