Wedding Singer to Croon on Broadway in Spring 2006 After Seattle 5th Avenue Bow
By Andrew Gans
14 Apr 2005
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Adam Sandler in the New Line Cinema film "The Wedding Singer"
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| photo by Tim Suhrstedt/New Line Cinema/Juno Pix | The Wedding Singer, a new musical based on the hit Adam Sandler movie of the same name, will open on Broadway in spring 2006.
Producers Margo Lion, New Line Cinema and the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle announced that the production will open at a Jujamcyn theatre in April 2006; previews are set to begin in March.
Prior to its Broadway bow, The Wedding Singer will world premiere at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Previews will begin at the Washington theatre Jan. 31, 2006, with an official opening scheduled for Feb. 8. The limited engagement will play through Feb. 19. No casting has been announced for the production.
Lion said in a statement, "I am thrilled to be returning to Seattle with a new Broadway show. Our experience with Hairspray convinced me that there is no better venue to get it right than The 5th Avenue Theatre. The audience is smart, sophisticated and ready to go on an adventure. The theatre is gorgeous; David Armstrong, Marilyn Sheldon and the entire 5th Avenue staff are everything a producer could wish for to the share the journey to the Great White Way."
(In summer 2005, the new production of David Zippel and Matthew Wilder's new musical, Princesses, plays 5th Avenue prior to Broadway.)
The Wedding Singer features music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin and a book by Beguelin and Tim Herlihy. Producer Lion told the New York Times that two songs from the film — composed by Adam Sandler and Herlihy — will also make it into the Broadway production.
The musical, according to a press announcement, concerns "Robbie Hart, [who] lives in his grandmother’s basement in New Jersey and sings in a wedding band. His dreams of being a singer/songwriter are long gone, replaced now by a burning desire to find the right girl and settle down. When his fiancée leaves him standing at the altar, he becomes a wedding planner’s worst nightmare, taking out his bitterness on stage . . . until his eye—and heart—turn to a new friend, Julia, but she’s engaged to a wealthy Wall Street broker."
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore co-starred in the 1998 film, which was directed by Frank Coraci. The original film featured a screenplay by Tim Herlihy.
Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar's previous projects include The Rhythm Club and Wicked City. Beguelin is currently at work on the book for the stage version of Disney's Aladdin, and Sklar is writing the musical adaptation of the film "Get Shorty."
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Chad Beguelin (left) and Matthew Sklar accepting their Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben |
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