Search - Matthew Sklar, Chad Beguelin, Stephen Lynch :: The Wedding Singer (2006 Original Broadway Cast)

Surprisingly good 80's-style score

Steven Valenti | Cleveland, OH | 06/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As far as musical comedy scores go, "The Wedding Singer" is the best since "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." It's instantly tuneful, witty, and more enjoyable than I really expected it to be. Firmly grounded in the pop styles of the 80's, writers Matthew Sklar (music) and Chad Beguelin (lyrics) have a lot of fun both mocking and honoring the decade (the obligatory synthesizer corniness recalls last year's "Altar Boyz"). They've done a good job crafting a score that works theatrically in its own right, and not just as a string of parodies. The cast-- which includes Tony-nominee Stephen Lynch, Laura Benanti, and Amy Spanger-- is solid, and they bring great vocals and energy to the score's numerous catchy songs (highlights include "It's Your Wedding Day," "Casualty of Love," "Not That Kind of Thing," and "If I Told You"). I suppose how much you like it might depend on your predilection for all things 80's, but this is one of the most downright likable of recent cast recordings. (Listen, too, for what has got to be an intentional shout-out to another 80's themed musical, "Taboo.")"

It's Not Meant To Be Sondheim - Just Plain Fun!

AJK | Chicago, IL | 06/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Based on the classic film starring Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore, "The Wedding Singer" is a light romantic comedy set in a world of 80s-filled nostalgia. The musical never takes itself too seriously, but instead brings back many memories of that decade's pop culture.



Led by Stephen Lynch & Laura Bananti, the cast sounds great, but the songs are a mixed bag - most terrific, some not so much. Overall, this is an enjoyable, fun cd and worth the purchase (especially, if you can catch the show), but the score's unlikely to stand the test of time for theatre lovers.



Best Tracks:



It's Your Wedding Day

Someday

Casualty Of Love

Saturday Night In The City

If I Told You

Let Me Come Home"

Minty fresh and zestful

stuey | California | 08/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Though I am loath to say something nice about a real-life Broadway score by a composer younger than I, the fact is there's lots of nice things to say about this. Any old fool can plug in a Casiotone with its built-in bass lines and say, "here's some 80's music for you." Ingenious Jewish composer Matthew Sklar, however, has honed in keenly on the decade's frenetic rhythms and gotten them to support the kind of tidily jagged, halting melodies that defined pop music for us Gen-Xers back in the day. These compositions well evoke the decade's exuberance ("Someday When It's Me," "Not That Kind of Thing," "Right In Front of Your Eyes") and hard-rock intensity ("Let Me Come Home," "Casualty of Love"). Two exceptionally well-crafted pieces ("It's Your Wedding Day" and "If I Told You") stand as fine rock-n-roll songs on their own, without the costumery of period-parody. (The spot-on ode to bachelorhood, "Single," I find difficult to categorize. I also don't know whether I'm surprised at such perspicuous anti-chick insights from a [...] lyricist. In any event, I can easily say the song is great fun.)



Lyricist Chad Beguelin repeatedly proves as apt at skewering the decade's culture as Sklar is at capturing its sound. Even the mere rhythm and tempo of "Saturday Night in the City" conveys the era's legendary night-club overindulgence, and Beguelin shines a laser-sharp spotlight on frenzied consumerism. "All About the Green" is the send-up of unchecked greed that DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS' "Great Big Stuff" number tries and fails to be. "Pop!" has young girls more awash in Maybelline, minty-fresh-and-Zestfully-clean than Madison Avenue could have dreamed.



This score's essential strength is that it doesn't try to be any more than it possibly can (a lesson hard-learned by the MISS SAIGON people but which nonetheless didn't stop BROOKLYN, LITTLE WOMEN, and LENNON from staining the Great White Way in a manner that begs a Sklar/Beguelin ode to Mop-n-Glo). One of my fellow reviewers blasted this CD for being "not art, it's corporate greed." This just in: Broadway musicals have ALWAYS been a for-profit business. Moreover, if corporate greed were the sole wellspring of this work, they'd have picked source material far more bankable than a mediocre eight-year-old popcorn movie and they wouldn't have hired a songwriting team whose two previous works didn't even make it to Broadway. There are respectable reasons why this one did: it promises only fun entertainment and massively delivers. At Amazon's prices, this is a bargain-bin full of fun, 80's memories, and great tunes."