By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Theatrical productions about weddings are really plays within plays.
Weddings involve drama even if they aren’t on stage. You have characters, family, tensions, and resolution, and certainly directors – often the mother of the bride.
“It Shoulda Been You,” a musical with score by Barbara Anselmi and book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove, has all those things, and set to music and laced with hilarity.
The Black Swamp Players’ production of the 2011 show opens Friday (April 29) at 8 p.m. in the theater at 115 Oak St. The show continues Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and next weekend, May 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. and May 8, at 2 p.m. Click here for tickets.
“It Shoulda Been You” opens with Jenny Steinberg (Amber Breault-Albain) with the veil on her head. Singing “I Never Wanted This.” She looks at the gown hanging up and laments that this is not what her heart’s desire was.
“Forget the wedding cake / And cook the rice you plan to throw, ’cause you’re making a mistake,” she sings.
A bride with cold feet? A more subdued version of the classic “(Not) Getting Married Today” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”?
No, it turns out Jenny is the sister of the bride. This is just the first of several plot twists. As the characters exclaim on occasion: “I didn’t see that coming.”
Jenny has been charged by her mother Judy (Beth Giller) with arranging the details of her younger – and how often will that get brought up? – sister’s wedding. That is she’s charged with doing her mother’s bidding and serving as the go-between with the almost clairvoyant wedding planner Alberta (Becca Martin).
Panini station, yes? Panini station, no? Alberta is one step ahead. She’s seen it all, at least until the Steinberg-Howard affair.
The bride, Rebecca (Alyx Fisher), has issues of her own. People seem awfully concerned that she’ll call off the wedding to Noah Howard (Greg Madison).
That would be fine as far as his mother Georgette Howard (Cyndy Brookover) is concerned. She wants the best for her son, for him to find a life partner, but only after she dies. Now he’s about to get married. She wonders “Where Did I Go Wrong?” She even encouraged him to be gay with dress up games and taking him to Sondheim musicals. (I hear certain faint echoes of the master’s work in this far more frivolous work.)
George Howard is more distant from his son, but tries to connect with him. That leads to one of the show’s high points as father and son engage in a wonderfully awkward song and dance, “Back in the Day.”
It’s touching … that is until the end of the routine, which will leave the audience thinking: “I didn’t see that coming.”
There’s a cultural clash between the Howards, inherited wealth and Catholic, and the Steinbergs, Jewish and upper middle class.
The battle of the mothers, both locked in their own cultural mindsets, comes to the fore in the beauty shop where Judy tries out being “Nice” to Georgette. That means she tries to soften her barbs, which also gives them an extra twist.
This is intended to be a change from her truthful-until-it-hurts manner. And she fails with Georgette, and never even tries to be nice to her daughters, especially Jenny, who is constantly being reminded of her weight, age, and unmarried status.
Judy tells her maybe she’ll find someone at the reception. The guests are all relatives, Jenny responds. Judy notes one family is only related by marriage, and their son is quite nice if you focus on the good eye.
If all this isn’t crazy enough, Rebecca’s former boyfriend Marty barges into the proceedings. Actor Nicholas Yates charges in from the audience, exclaiming he needs to talk to Rebecca.
Jenny is appalled, since she’s the one who accidentally let him know about the nuptials. Another failure, she thinks.
Instead her family including loony Uncle Morty (Andrew Varney) and lecherous Aunt Sheila (Emily Harel) tell him in song that “It Shoulda Been You” marrying Rebecca. The family liked Marty. He laughed at the Murray (Hans Giller) the father’s jokes. And he’s Jewish.
Marty is intent on talking to the bride, and Jenny is intent on keeping him away from her.
Adding the mayhem are the maid of honor Annie (Ebere Okoro) and best man Greg (Noah Halaoui) who are ready to party from the start.
That’s just the attitude audiences should bring to this show. By the end, everyone on stage and in the seats will have cause to celebrate, and maybe thinking “I didn’t see that coming.”
