By Jenna Bawer
Honeymoon in Vegas, based off of a movie of the same name, is a fresh face this Broadway season. The musical comedy is a collaboration between Andrew Bergman, the movie’s original writer and director, and Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown, starring Rob McClure and Brynn O’Malley as the young couple awaiting their marriage in Vegas and the famous Tony Danza as a conniving widower millionaire. These five, as well as director Gary Griffin (The Color Purple, The Apple Tree) and choreographer Denis Jones (Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) appeared on March 15 to give the audience of the 92Y a look at how the musical took the stages of Broadway and how the show is adapting. When asked if they had seen the musical, almost everyone in the audience raised their hands, some having just come and even carrying Playbills and cups from the theater; I was in the minority. It was this talk, however, that convinced me this show would be hilarious and unique onstage (flash forward a few days – I was right!).
Brown wanted to write a Broadway musical comedy, and decided Bergman’s Honeymoon would be suitable. Although he could not initially acquire the rights to the show to start it on his own, Bergman invited him to the script reading. Bergman recalled flying to Brown’s house , listening to his music ideas and working with him. Brown also worked on Bridges of Madison County, and says writing for this musical was very different, since it “didn’t bear any resemblance to Bridges” and it was much harder to throw material out. “Comedy writing is Chinese water torture…” Brown admitted, “It’s a horrible thing to spend your life doing.” Regardless, he says it’s rewarding to watch the songs get a laugh, though the songs also have to “move the story ahead” as well, as Bergman notes. He admits he had trouble writing songs without Brown’s help. When they finished, they handed it to director Gary Griffin, who found the first draft already in great shape. Griffin compared his work directing as being a magician: you can’t let anybody know how you do your work and you only let them see the results. He did reveal that “a lot of the process [of developing Honeymoon] was cleaning and editing in very small ways.”
The cast also recalled how they first became involved in the show. Television, film, and theater celebrity Tony Danza remembered Brown offering him the opportunity: “Jason came to my house…I thought he was going to have me sing,” Danza recalled. However, Danza was surprised when Brownbegan to sing Danza’s character’s lament for his deceased wife, “Out of the Sun” (which Danza later performed that night). Danza was moved, Brown told him about the movie, and now he gets rapturous applause every night as Tommy Korman. After not having seen him for years, Brown was glad Danza had aged perfectly for the part.
Rob McClure, on the other hand, was captured by the book. When an agent sent McClure, newly free from his title role in Chaplin: The Musical, he laughed out loud at a line on the third page and was convinced to audition. He landed the role of the meek and lovestruck Jack Singer, who struggles to propose to his girlfriend Betsy (played by O’Malley) due to the memory of his dead mother, who made him swear years ago to never marry, plaguing him; he and Betsy decide Las Vegas would be a good place to finally get hitched and comedy ensues. McClure later performed for us the romantic opening song, “I Love Betsy”, with accompanying vocals from the rest of the cast. He was enthusiastic as he sang, and later said this song makes him feel like “champagne” with its energy. Apparently, it had taken a long time to settle on such a great opening, and it paid off; McClure’s sample alone introduced me to how awkwardly sweet Jack singer is.
Brynn O’Malley is especially proud of how her character, the eager fiancee Betsy Nolan, is written in the show. She thinks the plot is “tricky” for Betsy, and “it would be very easy for her to become a victim or a damsel in distress, and what woman wants to see that?” Many people were surprised to see that O’Malley is not a natural blonde as Betsy is in the show; this is, of course, due to the use of wigs for quick style changes. O’Malley was glad she played a nice mix of blondes and brunettes.
Though Griffin found the show’s comedy “hard to read in traditional reading and get the energy”, the staging process was quick and easy. “It’s very inspiring to create choreography for this kind of score,” Denis Jones commented. McClure commended Jones’s ability to make his character’s choreography fit “like a tailored suit”, despite admittedly not being a skilled dancer. In workshop, Jones breezed through the choreography so quickly, when Brown rewrote the finale, they didn’t have time to rewrite what was already staged for the original song. They had to use a sidestep until they figured things out, which they did by the time Honeymoon hit the Nederlander.
The cast and crew are very impressed with how the show has turned out and all plan to work towards making it better. O’Malley expands upon the idea of the show including everyone in the story. “…Every person has at least one big moment”, she told the 92Y audience. She enjoys the way the cast experiments with the story, which the newness of the show gives them liberty to do. “[We’re] still experimenting until we hit the bullseye” is how she described this process. She prefers scenes that are still being improvised to scenes that are set in stone. Danza also likes his liberty in originating a character rather than just filling in a role that’s been solidified by many actors before him (he was Max late in the run of The Producers), as he has more opportunity. The system for testing the waters or entertainment for the Honeymoon cast is to wait while the audience laughs and note what made them laugh.
The most interesting thing I heard all night about the show was the revelation that the orchestra was not hidden in a pit, but visible to the audience upstage. Though Brown believes the best place for the orchestra is the pit, “nobody seems to know or care that they’re there”. His decision was made with the hope that the audience would pay attention to the orchestra on stage, and he took measures to include them in the story (when the setting changes to Hawaii, for example, they all don Hawaiian shirts for the entr’acte).
The group took questions from the audience near the end of the night. One audience member asked the cast for advice for young actors. Danza, who gives child students acting lessons, said, “Learn as much as you can and put yourself where acting is, persevere, believe no one else can do what you do.” McClure advises to be unique and stop imitating other celebrities. O’Malley informs young ones that they’re going to have to grow up and “become president of [their] own business”, and so they should become self motivated and get a work ethic. Another question was what plans the crew have for the future. Brown is planning to collaborate with Bergman on a movie, while Griffin will work on a new musical called Moonshine. Brown also will write music for an upcoming show about New York’s music in the seventies.
Honeymoon in Vegas is still evolving, and being new, it has yet to solidify anything. Brown noted he was pleasantly surprised to see how well-liked the show was: “People are screaming, there’s absolute hysteria going on around us and I thought, ‘This show is great.’” With all the care that went into this spectacle and how it’s adapting to please the audience as much as it can, this Honeymoon hopefully won’t end very soon.