Wedding Singer to Launch National Tour in Sept. '07
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 08, 2006
The Wedding Singer,
the new hit musical based on the popular 1998 New Line Cinema film,
will launch its 2007 road tour at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis on
September 7, 2007. The show is nominated for five Tony Awards,
including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Book of a
Musical, Best Musical Score, and Best ChoreographyThe Road
Company, an independent theatrical booking agency that distributes
musicals, plays and attractions nationally and internationally, will
exclusively handle The Wedding Singer road tour, according to co-founder Stephen Lindsay. The Road Company also handles tours for Wicked, The Color Purple, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Doubt and Altar Boyz. In addition, Wedding Singer
fans will have the chance to download a free track of the musical's
anthem, "It's Your Wedding Day" via the iTunes Discovery Download,
Apple's new music discovery promotion. This marks the first time in
iTunes history a Broadway show has been selected for the Discovery
Download program. From June 6 through June 12, iTunes will feature
"It's Your Wedding Day" on its home page and the soundtrack genre page.
The free download will be available until 12 a.m. Tuesday, June 13 and
will be on the main page as a link in the "Free Downloads." Subscribers
to Rhapsody, on the other hand, can access an exclusive version of the
album featuring an exclusive bonus track called "Awesome."
On June 6, the original cast recording of The Wedding Singer,
by Masterworks Broadway, became available on CD in stores nationwide.
The recording, which represents the first CD from this new label, was
produced by David Leonard, David Lai and Matthew Sklar. The recording,
like the show, features Stephen Lynch as Robbie Hart and Laura Benanti as Julia, along with Richard Blake, Kevin Cahoon, Felicia Finley, Rita Gardner, Matthew Saldivar and Amy Spanger.This
week, too, the "Today" show kicked off its popular wedding series with
a live cast performance of the show-stopping opening number "It's Your
Wedding Day".
A significant agreement was reached whereby the stock and amateur rights to The Wedding Singer
will be represented by Music Theatre International (MTI). MTI will also
work with the producers to promote and market the show to its extensive
database of customers, including school groups, community theatres,
performing arts centers, regional theatres and individuals throughout
the U.S. and internationally. MTI is a leading dramatic licensing
agency and has represented stock and amateur rights for such musicals as Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Fiddler on The Roof, and The Producers.
Show
producers also announced that negotiations and discussions with
production companies in Japan, Korea, Germany and the UK are underway. Directed by John
Rando and choreographed by Rob Ashford, The Wedding Singer features original
music by Matthew Sklar, book by Chad Beguelin & Tim Herlihy and lyrics by Beguelin.
"In
this original musical, rock-star wannabe Robbie Hart is New Jersey's
favorite wedding singer. He's the life of the party, the ultimate
master of
ceremonies, the unlikely hero of every party and a true believer in the
power of love until his own fiancée leaves him at the altar. Shot
through
the heart, Robbie becomes a newlywed's worst nightmare a wedding
singer
bent on destroying other people's weddings. Enter Julia, a winsome
waitress
who wins his affection and helps Robbie pick up the pieces of his
broken
heart. The only hitch is that Julia is set to marry a Wall Street
shark.
Unless Robbie can pull off the performance of a lifetime, the girl of
his
dreams will be gone forever," state press notes on the musical, which
is based on the hit film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.
The Wedding Singer opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 27th after beginning previews on March 30th.
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