“THE WEDDING SINGER”

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 4

Where: Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave.

Tickets: $30-$50, 520-7469, 1-866-464-2626, ticketswest.com and TicketsWest outlets.

Grade: C+

Screen-to-stage adaptations are all the rage on Broadway these days. It takes a lot of money to mount a production and producers, of course, want to limit their risk by offering the theatergoing public stories they’re already familiar with.

Still, the translation of the 1998 Adam Sandler vehicle “The Wedding Singer” to a Broadway musical remains a bit of a head scratcher. It wasn’t a hugely successful film. And it already had plenty of music in its bouncy, best of the 80’s soundtrack. Scrap that and you’ve cut much of the heart out of the film.

But when I caught the national tour last night at the Pikes Peak Center, I was happy to find that the pop score composed by Matthew Sklar with lyrics by Chad Beguelin was actually quite strong. Amy Marie McCleary’s choreography may have been uncreative and lazy, but the songs themselves were a lot of fun and for the most part tuneful. I especially enjoyed the charming “Come Out of the Dumpster” and the hard-driving ode to the decade’s materialistic excesses, “All About the Green” (one of the only two songs carried over from the film was the amusingly bipolar Sandler composition, “Somebody Kill Me Please”).

Unfortunately, the story didn’t fare as well. In stripping down the plot to make room for the songs, Beguelin and Tim Herlihy made the characters even more two-dimensional than they are in the movie. There’s the gay best friend. The skanky ex-girlfriend. The foul-mouthed grandma. And, of course, the money-grubbing jerk of a fiance. You could almost see the writers checking off their list of Obligatory Romantic Comedy Characters.

And the gags, for the most part, lacked any wit or originality. For example, when Julia’s mother tries to convince her daughter that the pompous ass she’s about to marry is Mr. Right, she runs through that well-worn litany of praise: “He’s rich. He’s handsome. He’s charming. And he’s rich!”.

Instead, what laughs there are come from the eye-winking references to the 80’s, including the usual jokes about big hair and even bigger cell phones. One of the few truly funny bits–and completely new to the musical–is a scene at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, where the witnesses include an assortment of 80’s-era celebrity impersonators, including a faux-Tina Turner, Mr. T and Imelda Marcos, all of which was presided over by a minister who bore a striking resemblance to the Great Communicator (or Teflon President, take your pick) himself.

The two leads have plenty of chemistry, which is a good thing for them as J. Michael Zygo and Jillian Zygo (as you might guess) are married in real life, playing their characters  much sweeter and a whole lot less goofy than Sandler and Drew Barrymore did in the film. The seconds are good as well–surprisingly so, considering what they’re given to work with.

People who love the movie will find some things to like in this unambitious but comfortably familiar musical version. If you don’t love the movie, there’s nothing here that’ll change your mind.

And if you weren’t lucky enough to live through the fabulous 80’s, you’re not going to find a whole to laugh at.

Order tickets here.

You can watch a montage of musical numbers from the tour here (featuring, apparently, none of the people you’ll actually see at the Pikes Peak Center).

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