THE WEDDING SINGER Rox...
It's totally awesome, dude!
So I finally saw THE WEDDING SINGER last Saturday night (Saturday night in the city!) with my eldest daughter Myrna. My husband and youngest daughter Trinity had seen it earlier in the week and totally loved it -- i.e. emerged from the theatre singing and dancing.
That is particularly hilarious since both of them started out not wanting to see it, and my husband had actually refused to listen to the CD.
THE WEDDING SINGER, with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, is a musical based on
Stephen Lynch and Laura Benanti play the title roles of Robbie and Julia brilliantly, with one of my Broadway favs, Amy Spanger, playing Holly.
The night I saw it Cara Cooper was on instead of Amy, and she was also fabulous. The whole cast is amazing, including Rita Gardner as Grandma Rosie, Mathew Saldivar as Sammy the bass player, and Kevin Cahoon as the hilarious Boy George look-alike member of "Simply Wed". I've already done a post on the cast recording, so you already know how much I love the music.
Needless to say, I loved the show itself. Great orchestrations by Irwin Fisch. Great book -- funny, concise, inventive (I loved the new scene at the Las Vegas wedding chapel) and fabola choreography! The sets and costumes were fun and very '80s (during the entracte, look at the projection on the curtains...).
I actually got nostalgic for the '80s -- after all, I got married in 1987! Stephen Lynch is very funny as Robbie -- especially in the "Casualty of Love" scene! And despite the fact that this is pop/rock music, the show wasn't too loud -- yeah! The audience loved the show, and literally lept to its feet at the end, which despite popular thought, does not happen at every Broadway show.
Myrna and I were treated to a special event at the end of the show. It was the 100th performance so Stephen Lynch made a little speech about how they were giving away a romantic dinner for two to somebody in the audience, and proceeded to pick a gentleman named "Mike", a police officer, who was sitting near the stage. After some pretending on Stephen's part that he couldn't remember that name of the restaurant (by this time TV cameras were up on stage) Mike revealed that he was actually proposing to his girlfriend who had joined him on stage!
Oh. My. God! Then he said, maybe he should ask her father's permission, and surprise, surprise, the father was seated in the balcony! She said yes! What a party! I could see that Laura Benanti was tearing up (well, so was I!). What a moment! My daughter turned to me and said "That's how I want to get engaged!"
What an amazing evening. I can't wait to see it again. Needless to say, on the long drive back to Toronto, our car was rockin' out to THE WEDDING SINGER CD!
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