"The Wedding Singer" Reviews — Page 4

Speaking as somebody who's barely into his early 20s, the 80's jokes wore me down. I found myself rolling my eyes a lot by the end of the first act (particularly during the last 20 minutes or so when they did the break dance, and the endless parade of celebrity impersonators at the very end). I liked the show much better when it made an effort to actually show character rather than rely on an endless parade of jokes about how funny the 80's were. But I did enjoy it.

These reviews are about spot on. It's an efficient show. Everything is about as good as it has to be. I suppose you couldn't really expect much else considering the source material.

Which ought to be a note to all aspiring musical writers: Just because it is a popular movie that could obviously be musicalized easily doesn't make it a good idea. Is the story IMPROVED by music? Then go for it. Nothing wrong with musicalizing a movie... but is it worth the time?

Ah, if only they listened.

I mean, really. The only people in the world who go to movies and think to themselves "Man, this would make a great musical! This SHOULD be a musical!" are people involved in creating musicals. Feel free to dispute me.

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I agree Roninjoey,
How much more imagination and talent it takes to turn a odd Movie like "The Light in the Piazza" or "Smiles of a Summer Night" into a Great Musical.
or "Grey Gardens" .

Updated On: 4/28/06 at 12:00 AM

No, it's not the strongest musical out there, but there's a real sweetness you can't help but fall for. As for age-ranges, I'm in my late 20s and I took someone in their early 40s, and they loved it even more than I did! I was surprised the reviews are starting to veer towards negative. I thought they would be mixed to mildly good. I really think the critics should've taken the show for what is was - a romantic comedy/popcorn movie on stage - and take it to heart.

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Don't get your hopes up on that Curtain, I don't believe Sondheim is "actually" writing that as of now. He's merely suggested it would be a good musical or perhaps one he might be interested in writing "someday"...

I'm only in my teens but I know that THE WEDDING SINGER was a ridiculous and worthless property for musicalization. It deserves every brick it gets.




Tootie 'The Most Horrible' Smith
St. Louis, MO

I personally think that these reviews confirm it. The Best Musical nominees will be:
-The Color Purple
-Jersey Boys
-The Drowsy Chaperone
-Tarzan

Now, IMO, even if Tarzan gets scathing reviews, it will get a nod because of its popularity.

The Wedding Singer had better come out swinging with a great ad campaign after these reviews to even have a chance at a) probably 2 or more Tony nods b) to be a big, crowd-pleasing hit.

Well, I loved it. I wish people didn't put so much stock in critics considering most of them don't have any sort of background in theater and just sorta "fell" into it. But alas, that's not the world we live in. I think if Wedding Singer gets nominated for "Best Musical" - which I thought might happen, but seeing as how much good reviews weigh on the tony voters mind - it could really help attendence. I think if people saw like "its your wedding day" then they'd def. be willing to buy tickets. They need to get the show out there. Have them perform on the Today Show or something.

Variety is Mixed:

"Having scored with its first Broadway venture, New Line doesn't stray far from the "Hairspray" formula with its second stage outing, "The Wedding Singer." Substitute the high-tack 1980s for the swinging '60s, swap Ridgefield, N.J., for Baltimore, copycat the candy-colored design and peppy score and, presto, another instant crowd-pleaser is born. But no matter how slickly realized it is, imitation comes with limitations. Like a knockoff Prada bag picked up on Canal Street, this looks at first glance like the real thing, but closer inspection reveals the imperfections.

Not that its synthetic quality proves fatal to "The Wedding Singer," by any means. Forced as it is, this is a fizzy confection offering enough easy enjoyment to attract the outer boroughs and the tourist trade.

It's also derivative by design, to some extent making a virtue of its inherent phoniness via winking acknowledgement.
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The musical's chief means of getting laughs is its tireless resurrection of cheesy '80s fashion trends and pop staples -- lace bustiers and fingerless gloves, parachute pants, aerobics, moonwalking, Flock of Seagulls-style sculpted mullets, fringed boots, big-haired metal skanks.

Scott Pask's sets, Gregory Gale's costumes, Brian MacDevitt's lighting and David Brian Brown's grotesque hair designs all work overtime to re-create and caricature the decade's most vulgar excesses.

But unlike "Hairspray," in which the quirky period evocation was a backdrop for fully developed comic situations and characters with real heart, "Wedding" has too little going on beneath the time-warp gags. It's also hampered by a central imbalance in its cast.
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Standout of the supporting cast is Felicia Finley, who embodies the scariest manifestations of '80s femininity in two riotous numbers as Robbie's fickle fiancee, Linda. Outfitted like Lita Ford and backed by wind effects straight out of a Jim Steinman video, Finley delivers a headbanging breakup missive in "A Note From Linda" and executes some dangerous-looking sexual acrobatics in "Let Me Come Home."

While the show's first half perhaps has one relentlessly upbeat number too many, the songs are a tuneful mix of dance beats and gentle ballads, the most effective of these being Robbie and Julia's "If I Told You." Composer Matthew Sklar and orchestrator Irwin Fisch have dipped liberally into the sounds of the era, borrowing riffs from Van Halen, Wham and Spandau Ballet, among others, while Rob Ashford's bouncy choreography references signature moves from "Thriller," "Flashdance" and "Material Girl."

The best song is the effusive opening (and closing) number, "It's Your Wedding Day." Had the show sustained that initial high note, focusing more on the romantic comedy and less on the "I Love the '80s" pop-culture collage, it might have been a more rounded entertainment.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930349?categoryid=1265&cs=1

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Margo, you are being generous in your labeling of these reviews tonight :)

"Margo, you are being generous in your labeling of these reviews tonight :)"

Not if you click through and read the entire review.

NY POST: Clive doesn't like it much, but confesses there is an audience for it.

WERE you, by any chance, a teenager-plus during the mid-to late '80s? Did you live in New Jersey - better yet, within 10 miles of Ridgefield, N.J.?

If so, then boy, have I got a musical for you! It's called "The Wedding Singer it's based on that old Adam Sandler movie (set, natch, in Ridgefield), and last night it opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre with your name and number written all over it.

As far as everyone else is concerned, imagine "Jersey Boys" being married to "Hairspray," and they now want a divorce -

A good one-word description for this show would be "crude." Actually, "obvious" is better, for the show is bestrewn with clichés, such as a potty-mouthed granny, a loutish best friend and, natch, all the pitfalls and pratfalls on the true-love way to Boy Gets Girl.

Then there are the New Jersey jokes, the Jewish jokes, the greed-is-good, insider-trading jokes, the time-sensitive visual jokes (a man driving along the highway announces to an incredulous listener that he's using one of those new cellphones, then holds up a device hardly small enough to fit under an airplane seat) . . . well, you get the cartoonish picture.

Sophisticated, it ain't.

Still, the book, based on the '98 movie script - by the original screenwriter, Tim Herlihy, with the show's lyric writer, Chad Beguelin - isn't all that bad.

But whenever you're prepared to give the show the benefit of a doubt, it comes crashing down, as in the scene set in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, featuring '80s look-alikes of Mr. T, President and Mrs. Reagan and Billy Idol. Billy Idol!

Matthew Sklar's music achieves the peculiar feat of sounding like a jukebox musical without an actual jukebox catalog supporting it.

Luckily, the show, with its time-coded choreography by Rob Ashford, has been staged and cast with rather more sensibility than it has been written.

The show is properly dominated by its hyperactive Lynch-pin, who reflects but doesn't mirror the Sandler style. The rest of the cast, notably the gently contemplative Laura Benanti in the Drew Barrymore role, and Kevin Cahoon as an overly fruity boy in the band (at least for New Jersey 20 years ago), all seem to be having fun.

As did, it's only fair to note, most of the audience.




http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/67706.htm

Updated On: 4/28/06 at 01:22 AM