Caught the Friday night performance at The Paper Mill and I was surprisingly taken with the show. The idea of it didn't hold much promise but gosh it worked and the audience loved it. It will be interesting to see what work will be done on the show since its already gotten some major NYC Critics reviews. Will it be "don't fix it if its not broke" or will they make it even more successful. Here's an instance where the screenwriter worked out well as book writer as opposed to the botched opportunity at Big Fish. Honeymoon plays so breezy and the three leads are so charming and so good at this type of comedy that the two and half hours fly by.
If I were to register any disappointment it would be that this show is lead by the book rather than the music. They had to figure out how to get a cinematic piece with all of it scene cuts onto the stage and that they have done robustly. But aside from the opening number it felt like an exercise of "insert song here". I expected more from Jason Robert Brown but I do not begrudge him the commercial hit this will undoubtedly be. It reminded me a lot of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in its format and presentation. I think it could have used a director's concept to tie the whole thing together. But you cant argue with success and reviews in hand. If there were three things I would have them work on it would be.
1) Everything they gave David Josefsberf. His Vegas headliner and Elvis impersonator songs added nothing to the proceedings.
2) Give Nancy Opel a pay off in the second act Garden of... scene. Her initial appearance is so sock-o tht you are waiting for something major in the second act. The build up to the scene is froth with comic expectation but nothing happens.
3) The Finale, the final scenes, it should explode rather than just unwind the way it does. They should call in the Kinky Boots crew to doctor it up.
My three quibbles aside I really enjoyed Honeymoon In Vegas and would recommend it as a fun night out.
Up In One
Updated On: 10/27/13 at 10:07 PM