It Shoulda Been You, is a musical comedy for anyone with parents. The bride is Jewish. The groom is Catholic. Her mother is a force of nature, his mother is a tempest in a cocktail shaker. And when the bride's ex-boyfriend shows up, the perfect wedding starts to unravel faster than you can whistle "Here Comes the Bride!"
The cast of It Shoulda Been You includes Tony Award-winner Tyne Daly, Tony Award-winner Harriet Harris, Sierra Boggess, Lisa Howard, David Burtka, Tony Award nominee Montego Glover, Chip Zien, Josh Grisetti, Adam Heller, Michael X. Martin, Anne L. Nathan, Nick Spangler, and Edward Hibbert, along with Farah Alvin, Gina Farrell, Aaron Finley, Mitch Greenberg, and Jillian Louis.
'It Shoulda Been You' is a plastic statuette for the tourist trade, a nice-Jewish-girl-marries-nice-Catholic-boy musical farce that is by turns desperately unfunny and relentlessly preachy. Brian Hargrove's been-there-done-that plot (Tyne Daly's Jewish mom is a monster of tactlessness, Harriet Harris's Catholic mom a boozehound) was already a cliché a half-century ago, and today its whiskery stereotypes are a millimeter away from being actively offensive. As for Barbara Anselmi's music, it sounds like a medley of discarded theme songs from the pilots of failed '70s sitcoms. The cast, fortunately, is excellent...David Hyde Pierce's staging is sufficiently adroit to make you long to see what he'd do with a real musical. This isn't it.
'It Shoulda Been You' is awfully funny. That's strange, because there's nothing especially clever about this musical comedy...The characters are broadly caricatured comic types you might find at a sitcom wedding (overbearing Jewish mother, high-strung bride, alcoholic mother of the groom, flamboyantly gay wedding planner, etc.), and instead of saying 'Comedy Tonight!' the music says 'Take a Nap!' But with impeccable instincts for finding their laughs, Hyde Pierce and his terrific ensemble players make this hokum seem terribly funny.
2015 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Sierra Boggess |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Lisa Howard |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Josh Grisetti |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Tyne Daly |
2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Tyne Daly |
2015 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Lisa Howard |
2015 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | It Shoulda Been You |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Tyne Daly |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical | It Shoulda Been You |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | David Hyde Pierce |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Josh Grisetti |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | It Shoulda Been You |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score | It Shoulda Been You |
Videos