The true star of “Honeymoon in Vegas” doesn’t dance, doesn’t act, doesn’t belt out a song surrounded by Vegas showgirls or wear a rhinestone Elvis suit.
But with apologies to a stageful of highly talented people who do all those things, it is composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown who is the real hero of this – rather unexpectedly – terrific new musical now making a stop at Paper Mill Playhouse on its way to a possible Broadway run.
Unexpected, because the lightweight 1992 Nicolas Cage romantic comedy about a Vegas wedding sabotaged by a high-rolling gambler would seem to be thin stuff to base a show on – even if this one does boast the services of TV’s Tony Danza and Broadway’s Rob McClure (“Chaplin”). But sometimes it happens that a superior show is built on an unpromising foundation: “Anything Goes” and “Damn Yankees” come to mind. Here is another case where a strong score, delivered with flair by skilled performers who seem to be having a great time, adds up to a terrific night.
“Honeymoon in Vegas” may be about the trials of a commitment-shy bachelor with a mother complex (McClure, of New Milford), his long-suffering fiancée (Brynn O’Malley), the sentimental gangster (Danza) who takes one look at her in Vegas and decides to muscle in, and a bunch of skydiving Elvis impersonators. (Yes, that’s the plot.) But what it’s really about is a celebration of a certain kind of show business: a world of big-band music, showgirls, schmaltz, low comedy, umbrella drinks. In a word: Vegas. Does that sound irresistible? Brown’s score makes it sound authentic.
“Honeymoon in Vegas” is a musical that is actually musical: something that can’t be taken for granted these days. Not since “Hairspray” has a score deliberately evoking a particular style and era been composed with so good an ear. Here, Brown (“Parade”) is evoking the loungy. show-biz stylings of the Rat Pack days — brassy tunes with an easy swing or a bossa beat. He’s taken Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Don Ho and Elvis, run them through a coffee grinder and brewed a batch of flavorful songs (“A Little Luck” and the title tune are especially good) that would sound totally in place at Caesars Palace or The Sands. And the lyrics are notably clever. Hats off to anyone who would think to rhyme “fiancée” with “Beyoncé.”
In this show – fittingly – the orchestra is front and center, right up on the stage. Tom Murray conducts a terrific band that is truly a band, not just 14-piece musical accompaniment. At various points, Frank Basile (sax), James Sampliner (piano) and Paul Woodiel (violin) took solos Sunday that got well-deserved applause.
The show that goes with the band is pretty much a pip. Who knew that a likable TV personality like Danza (“Who’s the Boss?”) was also a total show-biz pro, bossing the stage with easy charm and terrific soft-shoe dance moves? Who would guess that McClure, the expert mimic of “Chaplin,” could be so winning as a frazzled romantic hero (he suggests a young Joel Grey)? O’Malley as the puckish heroine, David Josefsberg as a king snake among lounge lizards, Nancy Opel as the overbearing mother, Matthew Saldivar as Danza’s oily henchman and Catherine Ricafort as an island temptress are equally deft, under the solid direction of Gary Griffin, abetted by Denis Jones’ choreography. But oh, that band.
In the Las Vegas of the new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, there are no EDM deejays or clubs with bottle service. Elvis has not yet left the building (except maybe to put on a parachute). Director Gary Griffin’s guffaw-out-loud production, playing through Oct. 27 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., boasts an old-school showmanship and shtick-happy comic sensibility that recall the Sin City of the Brat Pack era.
Happily, Jason Robert Brown’s zippy score is a mostly perfect complement to the daffiness of the material. Brown — who has another movie-inspired musical, The Bridges of Madison County, due on Broadway this season — has penned some of the wittiest lyrics in recent memory, outrageously rhyming words like heinous and anus (and molars with high rollers).
…The laughs come as fast as pulls on a slot machine, thanks in part to a winning cast. Standouts include Nancy Opel as Jack’s smothering Jewish mom, who pops up frequently (and hilariously) in flashbacks, and Matthew Saldivar as Tommy’s colorful henchman, Johnny Sandwich (”changed from Foccacia,” he explains).
McClure, who resembles the love child of Paul Reiser and Roberto Benigni, again displays his gift for physical comedy, particularly when he joins the flying Elvises or mimics the ”Single Ladies” dance while singing of his beloved Betsy, ”Just like Jay-Z and Beyonce / I will make her my fiancee.” (The choreography is by Denis Jones.) Speaking of Betsy, O’Malley is a crystal-voiced ingenue whose underwritten character behaves inexplicably, particularly in the whirlwind second act.
This time Rob won’t get robbed.
Last season, Rob McClure made quite an impression on Broadway – and quite a name for himself – for playing the title role in “Chaplin.” Yes, a Tony nomination is always an excellent reward, but the Millburn native should have won.
Now McClure has the lead in “Honeymoon in Vegas” at his hometown’s Paper Mill Playhouse. As was the case with “Chaplin,” the superb song ’n’ dance man is rarely off-stage and is thoroughly winning every second he’s on it.
McClure is expert on how long to wait for a laugh before restarting the show, which he effortlessly carries on his shoulders. When the show moves to Broadway, put your money on him to take home the prize this time.
All right, “Honeymoon in Vegas” hasn’t yet announced that it’s coming to New York. But with a few musical theaters currently available on the Great White Way, any one of them should welcome this funny but never vulgar slam-bang musical comedy.
McClure has the role that Nicolas Cage originated in the 1992 film. True, those two actors are nothing alike. Cage is cool and beefy, while McClure is hot-blooded and wiry.
He certainly knows how to hot-wire the role of Jack Singer, who promised his dying mother that he wouldn’t marry. (She was intent on being the only woman in his life, you see.)
Jack’s falling madly in love with Betsy Nolan has made that promise terribly hard to keep. They’ve been dating for five solid years, and while she’s been understanding about the promise, she points out in one of Jason Robert Brown’s most incisive lyrics that she recently attended her college reunion.
The musical would be 15 minutes long if Jack hadn’t chosen Las Vegas for their wedding and honeymoon. While they check in their hotel, they’re noticed by Tommy Korman, a gambler-slash-gangster who’ll slash anyone who opposes him.
Yet Tommy has a soft side, and still mourns his beloved deceased wife Donna. Once he sees that Betsy Nolan is a spitting image of her, he must have her — and never mind that she’s Jack’s fiancé.
Tommy is deftly played by Tony Danza, who now greatly resembles Frank Sinatra (even if he doesn’t quite sound like him). It’s inspired casting, for Danza has the likability needed for Tommy. Donna was a Madonna to him, and he’ll try to be the perfect gentleman in order to have Betsy love him.
Many movies that become musicals stink, but this one actually improves on the original. Andrew Bergman, the film’s writer and director, has stayed on to deepen it with a few added character traits and plot elements. He’s also wisely expanded the role of the mother, who is fortunately played by Nancy Opel, Broadway’s favorite crazy-lady character actress.
And because it’s Vegas, Brown has written songs that have that nice ’n’ easy swing. Tom Murray’s baton keeps the tempos apt, especially for David Josefsberg. He perfectly apes those lounge-act singers who know why they’re not playing the big room but try to keep secret their lack of talent that from the customers.
The song that Josefsberg sings about Vegas has lyrics that won’t please the Nevada Convention and Visitors Bureau, but the melody certainly will. Brown has also written a fetching fall-in-love waltz and a number of intelligent songs for Betsy.
She’s played with such loveliness by Brynn O’Malley that audiences will want her to be happy. But O’Malley shows the anguish in having to choose between Jack and Tommy: the laddie or the tiger?
Gary Griffin has staged the show in the way that great directors do with musical comedy: fast, slick and always fun. Denis Jones’s showgirl-tinged choreography offers the right snazziness.
Considering that “Honeymoon in Vegas” spends most of its second act in Hawaii, theatergoers will find that it’s two vacations in one. In each setting, what a marvelous tour guide is Rob McClure.
No doubt about who’s the boss of the fun new musical “Honeymoon in Vegas,” now having its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J.
It’s not Tony Danza, but he adds a starry aura and a solo softshoe as shady gambler Tommy Korman. It’s not game and nimble Rob McClure (“Chaplin”), who plays Jack Singer, a marriage-phobe fighting to keep his girlfriend Betsy (Brynn O’Malley) out of Tommy’s paws.
The show’s big kahuna is composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown, a Tony winner for the sobering “Parade.” Brown’s brassy and breezy and ever-tuneful new score carries this romantic romp from Brooklyn to Sin City to Hawaii.
Jason Robert Brown, most known for musicalizing emotional subjects like a Southern lynching, the crumbling of a five-year romance and facing the consequences of life choices, now, just for the moment, dumps the artsy stuff for a big fat hilarious musical comedy.
Honeymoon In Vegas, based on bookwriter Andrew Bergman’s original screenplay for the hit 1992 film, comes to the Paper Mill Playhouse in director Gary Griffin’s slick and polished, fast-moving production that has old-school Broadway smash written all over it. It’s a little Rat Pack, a little Don Ho, a little New York neuroticism and a whole lot of laughter.
After music director Tom Murray’s on-stage orchestra sets the mood with a jazzy supper club style overture (both the overture and the entr’acte display musicians in featured solos), a giddy Jack Singer pops out from under a yellow umbrella, dancing his way through a New York morning singing praises of his girlfriend of five years, Betsy. (“She likes hockey. No, I swear! / She likes guys with thinning hair!”)
Brynn O’Malley [is] a terrific belter with crack comic flair. …Jack’s Mom, whose spirit keeps popping up at the most inopportune moments, is played to the nutty hilt by Nancy Opel. The sentimental and morally corrupt Tommy serves as a perfect vehicle for Tony Danza’s knockout performance as a smooth and graceful tough guy who croons like a vintage saloon singer and even dabbles in a bit of soft shoe for his big second act number.
Bergman’s book is sharp with jokes and sight gags…But despite all the surrounding excellence, it’s Brown’s score that’s the star of the show, gliding from frantic New York rhythms to muscular Vegas jazz to touristy Hawaiian melodies and even a hard-rockin’ Elvis number.
But most impressively, his flippant lyrics continually offer both wry observations and flat-out belly laughs (one in Hawaiian) that entertain without taking focus from the desire for true love that motivates the three main characters.
They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what’s happening at Paper Mill oughta come to Broadway.