Honeymoon In Vegas The Musical

“I am prepared to hate this show, ” is what I said  to my friend as we took our seats at Paper Mill Playhouse for the performance of “Honeymoon In Vegas The Musical.”

“Me, too.” was the response.

Admittedly, not  a great attitude to bring to a show.  But I don’t like the movie “Honeymoon In Vegas,” dragged down by some stiff  performances and missed potential for comedy.  If this musical was going to be a rehash of Nicholas Cage, James Caan and Sarah Jessica Parker 20 years later and with a few songs tossed in, we were in for a long night.

But I was attending the show as research for anticipated cast interviews.  I need to bring an open mind and I was curious  how they would take the film’s storyline and turn it into a musical.

It turned out be the most surprising evening in all my years covering entertainment. Not because the producers tried to reinvent the genre, make a social statement, be self consciously artistic, or stray from the story’s basic boy loses girl-boy gets girl plot.  It was a surprise because the musical (with book written by Andrew Bergman who also wrote the screenplay) achieves what the movie did not:  it embraces the absurdity, goes balls to the wall for laughs, creates a tender moment without leaving the audience suffocating in vat of schmaltz.

At it’s core, the story is pretty preposterous. So why hold back? I’m delighted to say, “Honeymoon In Vegas The Musical” does not. It is hilarious, action packed, with first class musical performances.

“Honeymoon In Vegas The Musical” stars audience favorite Tony Danza as Tommy Korman (the James Caan part in the movie),  the impossibly energetic Rob McClure who brings his substantial gifts for song and physical comedy to Jack Singer (the Nicholas Cage  movie role), and  includes outstanding performances by Broadway veterans Nancy Opel and  Matthew Saldivar, and a 14 piece orchestra that is refreshingly on stage and an integral part of the show.