Critic at Leisure

‘It Shoulda Been You’ is here to stay, ‘Brits Off-Broadway’

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I might have been the last member of the audience still on my feet after the long standing ovation for Brian Hargrove (book and lyrics) and Barbara Anselmi’s (music and concept) hilarious ‘state of the moment’ new musical comedy “It Shoulda Been You.”
The tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks were also in gratitude that this frenetic tale of a very modern wedding day from hell — despite much of its classic comic infighting — is a groundbreaking take on the way our world has turned in the 21st century. And with the happiest of celebratory endings — “It Shoulda Been You” had both the wit and poignancy of “You Can’t Take It With You”— fast-forwarded to 2015.
A grand cast adds to the fun, albeit their characters also embody the seemingly endless ways of the world. Zaftig Lisa Howard’s Jenny Steinberg is happy to be the wedding planner for her model size younger sister’s big day, while passively enduring the weight of her mom’s endless taunts on how that aisle would open for her if she’d only “slim down.” How we root for Jenny’s independent spunk and grace! And oft-times want to tape the mouth of her pushy, opinionated mom (albeit Tyne Daly is a hoot here!) The cast of 13, under David Hyde Pierce’s spot-on direction, are all equally up to the task of gliding us through the complications possible to occur (and all do!) when the groom’s family is, in the vernacular, WASPS (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) — with the groom’s dad George Howard (Michael X. Martin) stand-offish with his son — except for wanting to form a sudden bond to secure a pre-nuptial to keep the family business intact! His cocktail-popping spouse (Harriet Harris is hilarious as coddling mom Georgette Howard) — so determined to keep her beloved ’boy’ close to her nest that she’s even encouraged him to be gay: “didn’t I get him everything Sondheim?”

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