"My Big Fat Jewish-Goyish-Gayish Wedding"
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| From left: Chip Zien, Anne L. Nathan, Josh Grisetti, Tyne Daly, Chip Zien. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
The show sets us down in a fancy hotel where
preparations are under way for the marriage of Jewish Rebecca Steinberg (Sierra
Boggess), daughter of Judy (Tyne Daly) and Murray (Chip Zien), to
Catholic Brian Howard (David Burtka), son of the wealthy Georgette
(Harriet Harris) and George Howard (Michael X. Martin). The wedding guests are
all staying at the hotel, so Anna Louizos’s attractive unit setting, with
multiple doorways and a second story, is flexible enough to serve for multiple
interiors, including—not very convincingly—a beauty parlor and a ladies’ room. The lovely costumes,
designed by William Ivey Long, are easy on the eye, and Ken Billington’s
lighting makes everything look as attractive as it should.
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| From left: Sierra Bogess, Tyne Daly, Lisa Howard, Harriet Harris, Montego Glover. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU provides a classic plot setup
allowing conventional borscht-flavored jokes and misunderstandings about Jewish customs and
Yiddish expressions (like the way Brian destroys “kinehora”) to do battle with jabs
at country clubber preconceptions. Opportunities abound to exploit the strain
between the two matriarchs, the take-no-prisoners Judy and the booze-thirsty,
sex-hungry Georgette. Added to the brew is an assortment of stereotypical but
marvelously performed characters: Rebecca’s unmarried, pretty, but overweight
older sister, Jenny (Lisa Howard), the brunt of Judy’s hurtful cracks about
both her size and competence; Marty Kaufman (Josh Grisetti), Rebecca’s ex, who arrives to break up the
wedding; Murray, the accommodating little mensch of a dad who does all he can
to avoid run-ins with his domineering wife; George, the uptight father who struggles
awkwardly to bond with his son; Albert (Edward Hibbert), the archly sardonic
wedding planner who proudly fixes every glitch, of which there are many;
Annie (Montego Glover), Rebecca’s beautiful black maid of honor; Greg (Nick
Spangler), Brian’s good-looking best man; the Steinbergs’ relatives, the clownish Uncle Morty (Adam Heller) and the randy Aunt Sheila (Anne L. Nathan); and, for
good measure, the hotel help, Mimsy and Walt, played with delicious versatility
by the same actors who undertake Morty and Sheila.
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| Harriet Harris. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
No relatives from the
gentile side appear, but with fifteen characters already accounted for, all of
them having plenty to do, it’s a good thing writers Brian Hargrove and Barbara
Anselmi (music and lyrics) know when genug iz genug.
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| Sierra Bogess, David Burtka. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
The plot is filled with complications, many of them creaky but still laugh-worthy: we wonder, among other things, what’s actually
going on between the maid of honor and the best man; what's Marty really after; how will Jenny resolve her emotional
crises as she watches her younger sister beating her to the altar;
what can be done about Aunt Sheila’s horniness; will the parents find some common ground? As we
near the finish line, a grapeshot’s worth of new complications explodes, some stretching credibility to the breaking point, but, hey, if you’ve loaded up on everything till then just think of the final moments as the Viennese table and shove those extra goodies down your gullet.
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| Nick Spangler, Montego Glover. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
Without its serviceable, quite listenable, and
occasionally even rousing score, IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU could be the kind of farce
that summer and dinner theatres thrived on over half a century ago. In fact,
seeing it the day after I’d seen LIVING ON LOVE gave me the feeling Broadway
was shifting into a retro cliché world resembling popular theatre of the
fifties (despite the contemporary takes on same-sex relations). Most of
the 19 songs are well-integrated storytellers, moving the plot along,
explaining reactions, and allowing characters to vent. Standouts include the
title song, in which Rebecca’s family expresses who it is they’d have preferred
as Rebecca’s spouse, and “Jenny’s Blues,” with which Ms. Howard brings down the
house. This isn’t a dance show per se but when dancing's needed, Josh Rhodes is there
to provide suitable choreography, like the deft soft shoe Brian
and George perform when singing “Back in the Day.”
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| From left: Chip Zien, Tyne Daly, Harriet Harris, Michael X. Martin. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
Mr. Hyde Pierce’s staging brings out all the perfectly
timed reactions and business the piece requires, and the casting couldn’t be
bettered, starting with Lisa Howard as the plus-sized sister with the face and
voice of an angel; surprisingly, but not undeservedly, she gets the star
curtain call after Tyne Daly. Ms. Daly is a ringer for many overpowering Jewish
mamas I’ve known, including my own. She nails Judy’s mannerisms and shoot-from-the-lip
wisecracks, and her singing, as in the fine “What They Never Tell You,” is first rate. Sierra Bogess, with her prettiness, presence, and pipes, is the whole package as the bride.
Harriet Harris brings her razor-edged voice and comical peculiarities to
Georgette, while Michael X. Martin is an impeccable complement as her uptight
husband. Mr. Hibbert has a patent on roles like Albert, and Mr. Grisetti is in
his loose-limbed element as the desperate Marty. All the others are equally
adept, making this one of Broadway’s best ensembles.
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| Lisa Howard. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU doesn’t seek to be THE KING AND I
or GUYS AND DOLLS. It’s a modest-sized (no chorus line), 100-minute,
intermissionless show with few pretensions other than to wring a laugh from you
here, a tear from you there, and to make you feel good without ever challenging
your intellectual capacities. Despite its corniness and comical familiarity,
its singers can sing and many of its zingers zing; I had more unabashed fun
than I did at several more highly touted (and extravagant) recent shows. If you
miss it, it’ll be too late to say shoulda, coulda, woulda.
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
256 West 47th Street, NYC
Open run