'It Shoulda Been You' is fresh and funny
NEW YORK — The bride is Jewish, the groom Christian. Their mothers are not, to put it mildly, enamored of each other. There's also the small matter of an ex-boyfriend who pops up on the day of the wedding, determined to stop it.
None of these details will necessarily prepare you for the twist that occurs roughly halfway into It Shoulda Been You (* * * ½ out of four), the delightfully giddy, goofy musical comedy that opened Tuesday at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre. It's a surprise that could certainly challenge a more skeptical theatergoer's ability to sustain disbelief.
Yet this new musical, this Broadway season's freshest and funniest to date, defies skepticism, both in its wacky humor and its big, buoyant heart. Book writer and lyricist Brian Hargrove and composer Barbara Anselmi have taken a familiar premise — that of lovers from different backgrounds uniting — and crafted something that is both endearingly old-fashioned in spirit and decidedly contemporary in execution.
Under the whip-smart direction of David Hyde Piece (Hargrove's husband), the 100-minute Shoulda Been can feel like a revival of some lost screwball classic. But Hargrove's hilarious lines, in song and dialogue, take liberties that wouldn't have flown back in the day. The bride's parents express their frustration in Yiddish, while the groom's mom confesses to vaguely inappropriate feelings for her son.
The message underlying this madness has to do with the importance of viewing others — as individuals, in families and relationships — with eyes wide open. And Pierce and his superb cast serve it with a delicacy befitting a fine soufflé.
The action takes place on the day that Rebecca and Brian — played by the silver-voiced Sierra Boggess and a spry, endearing David Burtka — are to be wed. Clan members gather and fret in various rooms outside the main banquet hall, as event staff — led by a wonderfully dishy Edward Hibbert as Albert, the curious and resourceful wedding planner — snoop and sneak in wisecracks.
It soon emerges that Brian is something of a goofball, and that he may have an eager rival in Rebecca's aforementioned ex, Marty. In Josh Grisetti's sweetly neurotic performance, Marty makes a heck of an entrance, involving a cellphone and a long-held note.
In the end, the ladies command our attention most. As dueling matriarchs, Tyne Daly (as Rebecca's mom, Judy) and Harriet Harris (as Brian's, Georgette) are just as marvelous as you'd expect. Both actresses send up, and eventually defy, stereotypes of controlling, meddlesome women tied to different ethnicities.
Love's most prominent heroine turns out to be Rebecca's older, unmarried sister, Jenny, played with a soaring voice and disarming pluck by Lisa Howard. This character, who also challenges clichés, may best embody the sheer good will that complements Love's sometimes wicked humor. Resist it if you must, but you'll likely still leave the theater feeling a little lighter.