Who Says the World Isn't Coming to an End?

After watching the new NBC show "Revelations" I'm sure I'm not the only one who is currently on the lookout for the signs telling us it is indeed the end of days.

Today, I saw one of these signs.

I was browsing the New York Times website, looking for some article to entertain me while I ate my lunch and lo, I found this. I don't know about anyone else, but this scared the bejeezus out of me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie "The Wedding Singer" and thought that it was easily Adam Sandler's best role. "The Wedding Singer" showed us that Drew Barrymore could be adorable and likeable again and that fashions from the 80's really were as awful as we remembered. Surprising almost everyone, "The Wedding Singer" became a smash hit and still has a healthy life rerunning on cable television. The movie spawned two soundtrack albums, both of which were worth buying, and that seemed to be the end of it.

But with the success of shows like "Spamalot" and "Hairspray", Broadway producers seem to be scouring IMDb for movies that can be made into toe-tapping, knee-slapping musicals. And they've settled on this - "The Wedding Singer".

What exactly about this movie screamed "live stage production"? And how exactly are they going to get Billy Idol to show up every night for his cameo at the end of the performance? Has no one thought about the fact that 90% of the charm of the movie was generated by the chemistry between the 2 leads and perhaps 2 other actors, talented as they might be, might not be able to recreate that charm?

While "The Wedding Singer" is by no mean a classic that should never be touched, I do see it as a work of art (in the larger sense of the word) that really doesn't need to be remade in any other medium. I'm now waiting for the musical of "Pretty Woman" or the dramatic retelling of "Animal House" since it really does tell of the epic struggle between good and evil, dark and light, rude frat boys and rich frat boys!

I just found out that they are developing a full scale restaging of all 3 Lord of the Rings movies, which I'm sure will translate brilliantly to the stage.
Perhaps "The Wedding Singer" won't be so bad after all.