On and Off Broadway

'Honeymoon in Vegas'

Review by Elyse Trevers

Posted

Surprisingly, a mediocre lightweight movie can make a pleasant lightweight Broadway musical. Honeymoon in Vegas is based on the 1992 movie starring James Caan, Nicholas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker. It tells of Jack Singer, a young man avoiding commitment. Although he loves Betsy, he promised his mother on her deathbed that he will never marry. However, fearful of losing her, he finally decided to elope with her to Las Vegas where gambler Tommy Korman notices her. Betsy bears a striking resemblance to his late wife Donna, so Korman arranges a crooked poker game, and when Singer loses several thousand dollars, his only way out is to promise Betsy to Korman for the weekend.

The musical stars the marvelously talented Rob McClure (Chaplin) as the hapless Singer. McClure delights the audience with his rubber face and his lithe body. He’s got a pleasant singing voice and such a likable way that, despite some of the foolish things his character does, the audience is pulling for him. Bryan O’Malley plays Betsy, the woman the men are fighting over. At first she is objectified, but O'Malley, a fine comedienne as well as an excellent singer, holds her own. However, for many in the audience, the attraction is TV personality Tony Danza as Korman. The show uses his celebrity and gives him far much to do and too many songs to sing. He even gets to do a tap dance. Danza looks the part and is a passable singer, but he's no leading man. Although he gets first listing in the Playbill, McClure rightly gets the last bow.

With music by the talented Jason Robert Brown, the two and a half hour romp is a light hearted silly romp. Among the funnier bits are the scene with the Flying Elvises and a scene when the ghost of Singer's mother appears in Tiffany’s jewelry counter. Despite being set in Vegas for much of the play, the staging seems a bit spare. Instead the cast members play several roles and Vegas is represented by two tall chorus girls and a “uniquely clad” harp player.


While musical theater has been getting darker and more introspective and, dare I say more intelligent, Honeymoon in Vegas is downright thin.The story is inane, especially when Singer's mother appears as a Hawaiian totem. The device is silly, yet the audiences delights in it.

Maybe audiences are getting tired of seriousness. If so,Honeymoon in Vegas fits the bill. I’m just hoping that this first new musical of the theater season isn’t an indication of what’s to come.