Stephen Lynch tones it down to hit Broadway in 'Wedding Singer'

Apr. 27--Rock star wannabe Robbie Hart is the gentleman hero of every bridal party, the leader of the line dance, the day-saving master of ceremonies embodied by Adam Sandler in the movie "The Wedding Singer."

Stephen Lynch sings about killing kittens.

Their worlds will intersect like drunken guests at the Huntington Townhouse when Lynch debuts as Robbie on Broadway in an original musical adaptation of the Sandler film, opening tonight at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

The 1998 movie, set a decade or so earlier, told the story of a humble tunesmith and a banquet waitress both engaged to be married, but to the wrong people. It was written by veteran "Saturday Night Live" scribe Tim Herlihy, who also co-wrote the libretto of the new musical. Drew Barrymore was the dewy-eyed server on celluloid, now a singing and dancing role in the hands of stage vet Laura Benanti ("Nine"). "The Wedding Singer" arrives on Broadway with all of the movie's pop-culture references intact, from bulky cell phones and $700 CD players to Madonna-wear and "Flashdance" re-creations.

Lynch, 34, moved to the Big Apple from Michigan a decade ago and began playing the city's comedy clubs, his altar-boy looks belying a tendency to sing about subjects such as his mentally retarded friend "Special Ed," or how big his inheritance would be if Grandpa would just drop dead already. He is a favorite on Comedy Central and has released three CDs of original songs, most recently "The Craig Machine," which he recorded last year at Symphony Space.

Avoiding the jitters

Near as Lynch can guess, someone associated with the show had seen his work on Comedy Central and asked him to read for the part. He won it, and recently completed a Seattle tryout, where his goal was to avoid "Wedding" jitters.

"I try to pretend that there's not a multimillion-dollar show whose success hinges on the question of whether or not my throat hurts me that day," he said backstage last week. "I'm having too much fun to let the pressure get to me."

Early in Lynch's career, people would compare his homegrown ditties to Sandler works such as "The Hanukkah Song." "I spent many years trying to get away from that comparison, because I thought what we did were two totally different things. When this opportunity came along, I had to sit back and go, 'Hmmm, I'm really going to invite even more comparisons.' But at that point, I was beyond it. People know that what I do is different from Sandler and Jimmy Fallon and Tenacious D."

Lynch vaguely recalls renting the movie version after its Valentine's Day 1998 release, but says it "wasn't a monumental event." He finally met Sandler when "Singer" was in previews last year in Seattle, and they had a polite backstage confab after the show.

Lynch says it doesn't trouble him that "Singer" is "less edgy" than his stand-up material, because songs from the musical like "Somebody Kill Me" or the barroom buddy tune "Single" are funny in a different way.

"As much as I think the new material I'm writing for myself is a little more subtle and clever than the stuff I wrote out of college, these songs tell a continuing story, and in most cases they're just as funny, if not funnier than what I do," he says. "It would be nice to really let loose sometimes, but that's what my stuff is for, and I'll go back to that when I'm done here."

Writing jokes for Sandler

Herlihy has never been a stand-up comedian, but his college roommate was. The Poughkeepsie native was randomly paired with Sandler as a New York University freshman in 1984, and became one of several friends who helped the budding comic write material.

After a postgradute stint on Wall Street, Herlihy became a writer for "SNL," creating jokes for Sandler's "Canteen Boy" character, and earning an Emmy nomination. If Sandler and, now, Lynch are the grooms of "The Wedding Singer," then Herlihy is its best man.

Herlihy, 39, recalls that Sandler wanted to make a movie about a wedding singer who got stood up at his own nuptials. Herlihy had wanted to do a movie set in the 1980s. They combined their ideas and collaborated on the original music for the movie, which also includes 1980s earworms by David Bowie, Boy George and just about anyone else who had a hit song during the Reagan administration.

"It's the only movie I wrote with earphones on," Herlihy says, noting that Billy Idol and Cyndi Lauper provided the soundtrack to his writing sessions. (Idol famously cameos in the movie, aiding Robbie's overtures to Julia aboard an airplane flight to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, "Fake Billy Idol" and "Fake Cyndi Lauper" are characters in the Broadway show.)

Personal experiences

Herlihy wrote half a dozen other big-screen comedies for Sandler, including "Billy Madison," "Happy Gilmore" and "The Waterboy." He left "SNL" in 1999, going on to serve as executive producer for Sandler projects including "Anger Management" and "The Longest Yard." Two years ago, he was approached by investors for the planned stage effort, who included Margo Lion ("Hairspray"). Herlihy convinced them to let him co-write the book, for which he shares credit with Chad Beguelin.

As with any writer, Herlihy's personal experiences helped shape the "Wedding Singer" story, in both its incarnations. His finance background came into play when creating Glen Guglia, the wealthy lothario Julia is engaged to when Robbie enters the picture. ("Julia Guglia? That's funny," Robbie says, summarizing one of the reasons he thinks Glen and Julia make a less-than-ideal couple.) Julia Sullivan is, in fact, the name of a real-life beloved aunt.

Working for laughs

There was never any consideration that his pal Sandler would play the part onstage, and Herlihy thinks Lynch is the right man to step into his college buddy's shoes.

"Stephen's like a computer," Herlihy said. "Almost all comedians are like that. They never forget what inflection gets a laugh. And he's willing to try new things, but if he does something that doesn't work, you'll never see it twice."

Herlihy keeps in regular touch with Sandler, who will miss opening night because of production work on a film. The pair are working together on a comedy Western, even as Herlihy's attentions are diverted by his musical mistress at the Al Hirschfeld.

"Adam always asks how it's going, and he's happy to help with ideas," Herlihy said. "I think he's excited for me as a friend, and at the same time, he'd really like it if I got back to work on the movie I'm supposed to be writing."

Connecticut to New Jersey via Manhattan

Robbie Hart, Julia Sullivan and Glen Guglia are still the main players in "The Wedding Singer," but there have been a few changes since their last trip to the altar.

Writer Tim Herlihy had just moved to Ridgefield, Conn., when he wrote the movie script in 1996. As an homage, he set the story in a generic "Ridgefield." Reviewers and fans assumed it was Ridgefield, N.J., and people used to tell Herlihy all the time that he'd really nailed the vibe in that Garden State city. For the musical, Ridgefield is clearly "Ridgefield, N.J."

The banquet hall where Robbie sings and Julia waits table was unnamed in the Adam Sandler movie. For the musical, the space is called the Touch of Class catering hall. Producers thought Herlihy's made-up moniker for the stage was over the top, but the writer and his partner went online and found a dozen real banquet halls with the same name. They are located in such diverse locales as Miami; Philadelphia; Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Killeen, Texas. So the joke stayed.

In the movie, Robbie gives music lessons to a neighbor, "Rappin' Rosie," who was played by actress Ellen Albertini Dow, who really did the rapping. In the musical, Rosie is played by Rita Gardner, the original "Girl" in "The Fantasticks" opposite Jerry Orbach. Rosie is now Robbie's grandmother, and Robbie makes his disheveled home in her basement.

The musical features original music, while the movie relied mostly on famous songs from the 1980s, including "99 Luftballons" and "White Wedding." Two Sandler-Herlihy tunes from the movie have made it to Broadway: "Somebody Kill Me" and "Grow Old With You."

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