By Steven Suskin THE WEDDING SINGER [Masterworks Broadway 82876-82095]
But The Wedding Singer has been done in, partially, by timing. The so-called Jersey audiences are flocking to the theatre nowadays, but to see the loud-and-brash and exuberantly satisfying Jersey Boys; while Hairspray, nearing its fourth anniversary, remains top-notch musical comedy. The Wedding Singer matches neither the craft nor charm of its direct predecessors. Without the competition, I suppose it would do well enough. As things are, it is inevitably picking up the overflow audience from Jersey Boys, which is presumably sizable on weekends but not enough in itself. Even so, the lift from the colorful performance "It’s Your Wedding Day" on the Tony Awards telecast just might be enough to put The Wedding Singer over the top. Remember Smokey Joe’s Café?
The CD, from Masterworks Broadway, demonstrates that composer Matthew Sklar and lyricist Chad Beguelin are highly capable and certainly not to blame. This is the pair that wrote The Rhythm Club, the musical about a swing band in Nazi Germany that closed after a heralded tryout at the Signature Theatre in Arlington in 2000. I’ve not heard the score, but it was roundly described as being quality musical theatre.
In The Wedding Singer, they prove their worth on a handful of strong-and-effective songs. But the demands of the piece seem to have overwhelmed them. What we get is about 50% on the level of Promises, Promises, which is all to the good. But the other half of the score seems to mirror Big (in its attempts to sound contemporary, circa 1995) and Saturday Night Fever (in its attempts to sound — what, loud?). One gets the impression that this is not Sklar and Beguelin at their best; in certain slots, they seem to have shrugged and said, if this is what we have to do to finally make it to Broadway, so be it. Even if it means writing a Saturday-night-in-the-big-city song, a Wall Street greed song, one of those granny-does-hip-hop numbers and more.
25 Jun 2006
For more than half a century, Broadway has had a place for brightly colored comic strip-type musicals such as Bye Bye Birdie. And for a couple of decades, there has been room for loud-and-brash musicals for our neighbors to the south. That is, New Jersey. The Wedding Singer, the new spring musical, easily fits both categories, and on paper it should be a natural.
But The Wedding Singer, despite several high spots, is in too many departments lacking. In a weaker Broadway field — such as the musicals that came and went through most of the 1990s — The Wedding Singer would probably be an easy hit. But I haven’t heard anyone come out of The Wedding Singer and say, gosh, this is even better than Jersey Boys. Or Hairspray.
— Steven Suskin, author of "Second Act Trouble" [Applause Books], "A Must See! Brilliant Broadway Artwork," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by E-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com
