Star-studded night at THE WEDDING SINGER! 4.1.06 — Page 6

I was at the gypsy run and had tickets for last nights show as well.Some smart cuts had already been made but Laura seemed even more bland as her funny bits do not land with us and now she is not funny at all.Julia is a natural comedian with flavor...that is what she is missing. And Stephen Lynch I felt is now working his tail off since he is getting no funny from his leading lady.I do not think they can just put Maddigan on for previews...but I would pay to go back and see that!Spanger,Finley&Maddigan...along with those boys...not sure if my bladder could take it.It is just a shame that as talented as Laura is, it is not a natural role or a natural sing for her.Her reviews might keep Wedding Singer from its Tony potential, yet I still have a few more shows to see.Speaking of Tony...Hello Spanger and Cahoon!!

My uninformed take:
I never thought of the movie version as a romantic comedy. Sure, it was a comedy (about romance), but it had none of that classic give and take. All Drew really had to do was look cute and get rescued - which she did magnificently. The film, funny and charming as it is, is more "Happy Gilmore" than "It Happened One Night".

But the casting of a Tony-nominated Broadway darling opposite a basically unknown comic perhaps created an expectation that the "girl" part was going to be beefed up into a classic rom-com leading lady. It sounds like that didn't happen, and people going in expecting Benanti to be more than just the cute girl who gets rescued are going to be disappointed. As an earlier poster noted, it's not "The Wedding Singer and The Waitress"

Updated On: 4/5/06 at 12:04 AM

i have to disagree about stephen lynch being a "basically unknown comic" he has 4 albums, a dvd, and s special appearance on XM radio, a comedy central presents episode, all present him as not just a comic, but also a comedic singer

and iTunes named both of Stephen’s CD’s, “A Little Bit Special” and “Superhero” as two of the 100 best-selling independent albums in iTunes’ history

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Munk - I agree, the blame can be spread everywhere for the Benanti thing, I think.

The FEW LINES she is given that are amusing she delivers very well - the scene where she is drunk is adorable, as is the scene where she tells him his songs are "too dark" - but they don't give us enough of that. And I don't think she has the chutzpah to make the best out of the rest of it. (unlike Amy Spanger, who can make all her material strong even if it isn't) On top of that, some really odd blocking (and the stupid "fake blah blah" scene in the chapel take away from ONE moment she should have NO trouble with (and doesn't) - but it's diminished with all that endless posturing by the fake celebrities.

I think you're right in saying the blame can spread across the board. ARE YOU LISTENING, WEDDING SINGER PEOPLE? Some (but not all) of this could be fixed... easily... and now.

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