The Goodbye Girl and The Wedding Singer

[ceebeegee]

I downloaded a couple of albums last night from iTunes--The Goodbye Girl and The Wedding Singer. I used to have the first one but I lost the tape a few years ago. It's not a bad score--some of the songs are quite sweet, like "I Think I Can Play This Part" and "Paula." "Richard Interred" is also very clever. The score doesn't blow me away exactly but I'm enjoying listening to it, probably because I love the movie so much. But the Lucy I hear through the songs seems a little too knowing--yes, Lucy is precocious but she's still 10 years old, a little girl. This Lucy seems older, like she's 12, and sounds older as well. Martin Short is an inspired choice to play Elliott, but I'm not sure about Bernadette--she seems a little too adorable for Paula, who is kind of a shrew in the first half of the story. I'm curious as to why the show did so poorly with two such big stars in the leads--it may have been due to the whole Richard III sequence, which is pretty dated nowadays. Come to think of it, I can't remember how they handled that in the Jeff Daniels-Patricia Heaton TNT remake a few years ago but then they missed a LOT in that remake. They left unchanged the things they should've changed and vice versa--the original is something of a period piece, and the remake missed a lot of that. I posted on the imdb message board about the anachronisms (or just plain bad research):

*Paula auditions for the show on the stage of a theater. This is not how directors have auditions now in New York City--they rent studio space. Auditioning in the theater makes it look like A Chorus Line.

*The remake takes place in Greenwich Village instead of the Upper West Side (in the original). There is not one grocery store anywhere in the Village where you can have two shopping carts side by side (when he comes up next to her and suggests they combine food expenses)--grocery stores are absolutely tiny in that area of the city.

*In the Greenwich Village of 2004, there is no way you'd have 3 muggers brazenly stealing purses in the daytime. Even at night that would be a big stretch--the Village is one of the safest areas of the city and is packed with people and they would be caught immediately. In the original, which took place in the UWS in the late '70s, it was believable because the city was a very different place then, with a high crime rate. But even supposing 3 muggers were stupid enough to try that in the Village in this era, it's *completely* ridiculous that they'd be able to get away that quickly--in a car? The Village has narrow short streets that are difficult to navigate--they would've hit a red light immediately, or come up behind another car. It's just not believable.

*How can a single, barely-employed mother afford even half the rent on a two-bedroom apartment in the West Village? It's an extremely expensive neighborhood. For that matter how can TONY afford it? Off-Broadway actors make crap for wages. Again, it was more plausible in the original, because the Upper West Side in the '70s was much more affordable (even adjusting for inflation).

*Sigh.* Why remake such a classic movie? To gild refined gold, to paint the lily...

However, I am LOVING The Wedding Singer--I enjoyed the show very much, and the score is just terrific. The opening number, "It's Your Wedding Day," is so soaring and fun, you just want to start belting it out. Also great are "Someday" (Julia's anthem) and "Casualty of Love"--hilarious! Just a great score.

Comments

[neoscribe.livejournal.com]

Caught The Goodbye Girl the movie on AMC a few months back when I was over at someone's that has cable. Held my attention more than Casino Royale (the original)

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

You saw the original, right? Such a great movie. Quinn Cummings was adorable (and got an Oscar nom) and there are so many quotable scenes. I love the one where he says "I got a lawyer friend--" and she immediately knows he's an actor.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the musical Goodbye Girl, but its problems became rather well known. The authors never figured out how to make Bernadette's character sympathetic and Martin Short, who was making his Broadway debut, was pretty much handed the show. But the two of them looked great together singing "Paula" on the Tony Awards. I believe Gene Saks was fired as director and that was the end of the Simon/Saks partnership. The weird thing is that the London cast album has an almost entirely new score.

And yes, I couldn't believe all the animosity toward The Wedding Singer among the... ah... other critics. I thought it was very clever fluff. And yeah, that opening number was terrific.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Yes, the...other critics...need to allow themselves just to enjoy a fun, sweet show. Such snobbery on that board, it's really off-putting.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, I know at least one critic who loves fun, sweet shows and he completely panned The Wedding Singer. Sometimes one person's sweet is another person's dumb.

[wonderpanther.livejournal.com]

Seth and I rented the remake from Blockbuster a little while back. When we popped it in, we realized that they had given us the original by mistake. We were fine with that.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

You didn't miss much, believe me ;-) The original is far superior--it was nominated for all sorts of Oscars and Richard Dreyfuss won for Best Actor. The remake was sort of charmless although Jeff Daniels wasn't too bad.

[wonderpanther.livejournal.com]

We saw the Wedding Singer with cheapie tickets. It was really cute, not a life-changing experience but it was fun and the songs were fun and the lead was very good.