The 1980s have been experiencing a resurgence in popularity lately, appearing everywhere from fashion to television shows to Rubik’s Cube contests. And now, live theater can be added to the growing list: THE WEDDING SINGER, the Tony-nominated musical comedy firmly-rooted in 1985, began a national tour last month. Not shy about his fondness for the decade of decadence, Tim Herlihy, writer of the box office smashes “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore,” adapted his screenplay for “The Wedding Singer” to the stage.
Prior to his screenwriting success, Herlihy had the good fortune of rooming with actor Adam Sandler while they were college freshmen. Their friendship blossomed and he began writing material for Sandler’s stand-up comedy act. When Sandler joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” he helped Herlihy land a two-week trial writing for the sketch comedy show. “I came in and wrote a bunch of stuff and got some stuff on the air which is sort of unusual and then I got offered a permanent gig (as a writer and producer),” Herlihy recalls. His collaboration with Sandler segued to movies where he wrote “The Wedding Singer” in which Sandler starred in 1998. Around 2004, theatrical producers contacted Herlihy to obtain the rights to the movie in order to turn it into a Broadway show. “I thought about it for a couple of days and I thought ‘you know this could be a good musical, of all the movies, I think this could be the one.’ So I said I’d give them the rights if they would let me help write it.” The musical comedy opened on Broadway in 2006 and was nominated for a Best Musical Tony Award that year.
The decision to set the show in the ’80s “was sort of a last minute ‘Oh, it might be fun to do this,’” explains Herlihy. The show’s title character, Robbie Hart, gets dumped at the altar and develops a friendship with a waitress named Julia Sullivan who happens to be engaged to a jerk. Herlihy believes that one of the most appealing aspects of the show is the romance that begins to unfold between Robbie and Julia. “It was the most romantic movie I’d ever done and it still is,” he explains. “It’s a great love story and people respond to it in the movie and they responded on Broadway.” But if you were a child of the ’80s, this is a show that will make you laugh remembering the days of big hair and mullets, questionable fashion styles and “Flashdance” inspired dance moves. “We grew up in that decade and it formed who we are so to bring people back to that is not just funny but hopefully something that they can enjoy, visiting that time of their lives,” says Herlihy.
There are some notable differences between the movie and the Broadway musical. “Well, there’s more singing and dancing,” laughs Herlihy. “The movie ended on an airplane and it’s kind of hard to do an exciting finale on an airplane so we brought it to Vegas (for the Broadway show) and that’s really been kind of the most surprising thing and maybe the most gratifying thing is how well the new ending goes over.” The ensemble also plays a bigger role in the singing and dance numbers and there are even special “fake” appearances from favorite ’80s icons including Mr. T, Billy Idol, Tina Turner and Imelda Marcos. “We’ve been very lucky with the ensemble players,” shares Herlihy. “They do these impressions and they (the audience) love them.”
“In terms of word-of-mouth, people really enjoy it and that’s been tremendously gratifying to me - the fact that it’s out on tour and it’s going to reach people it wouldn’t have reached on Broadway,” says Herlihy. “I really believe in it 100%.”
More information on THE WEDDING SINGER and a backstage tour video is available at: www.theweddingsingerontour.com.
By: Beth Cox
