''How Sweet It Is'' is a 2013 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Brian Herzlinger Brian Scott Herzlinger (born February 19, 1976, Brooklyn, New York) is an American film director who directed and starred in ''My Date with Drew'', a documentary released in 2005. Herzlinger graduated from Ithaca College (NY) with a film degree ...

and written by Herzlinger and Jay Black. The film stars

Joe Piscopo Joseph Charles John Piscopo ( ; born June 17, 1951) is an American actor, comedian and conservative radio talk show host. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1980 to 1984, where he played a variety of recurring characters. His f ...

Erika Christensen Erika Jane Christensen (born August 19, 1982) is an American actress and singer whose filmography includes roles in ''Traffic'' (2000), '' Swimfan'' (2002), ''The Banger Sisters'' (2002), ''The Perfect Score'' (2004), ''Flightplan'' (2005), '' ...

Erich Bergen Erich Bergen (born December 31, 1985) is an American actor, singer and presenter, best known for his roles as Bob Gaudio in the biographical musical drama film ''Jersey Boys'' and as Blake Moran in the CBS television series '' Madam Secretary'' ...

Michael Paré Michael Kevin Paré (born October 9, 1958) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''Eddie and the Cruisers'' (1983), '' Streets of Fire'' (1984), and '' The Philadelphia Experiment'' (1984), and on the series ''Starhun ...

, and

Paul Sorvino Paul Anthony Sorvino (, ; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law. Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese cri ...

. It was released in select theaters in the United States on May 10, 2013.

Plot

An alcoholic theater owner needs to put together a successful musical in order to pay off his mob debt, but problems arise when the wise guys want to cast their friends in the production.

Cast

as Jack Cosmo *

as Sarah Cosmo *

as Ethan Trimble *

as Mike *

as Big Mike *

Jonathan Slavin Jonathan Slavin (born November 8, 1969) is an American actor and activist. Early life Slavin was born in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Career Slavin portrayed illustrator Byron Togler on the Fox netw ...

as Clifton *

Louis Lombardi Louis Lombardi (born January 17, 1968) is an American actor known for his roles in ''The Sopranos'', ''Fantasy Island'', and ''24''. Early life Lombardi was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Louis Lombardi Sr. Career On telev ...

as Wally * Victoria Summer as Kristina *

Steven W. Bailey Steven W. Bailey (born July 1, 1971) is an American actor. Bailey is best known for taking on the character of Steve Williams in the TV show ''My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance'' in 2004, and for playing the recurring character of Joe, a bartender ...

as Gregory *

Veronica De Laurentiis Veronica De Laurentiis (born 1950) is an Italian-American author and actress. She is the daughter of Silvana Mangano and Dino De Laurentiis, and sister of film producer Raffaella De Laurentiis. At eighteen, she was cast in the film '' Waterloo' ...

as Veronica

Production

On May 2, 2012, it was announced that

, and

had joined the cast of the film. It was also announced that

Burt Reynolds Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...

had joined the cast, but he later dropped out.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in early May 2012 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Reception

''How Sweet It Is'' was panned by critics, receiving a 0% rating from 6 reviews on aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Rachel Saltz of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: "

's ''How Sweet It Is'', an ode to the healing powers of musical theater, misfires so badly at the beginning that it takes a while to notice when it goes from godawful to sweetly awful. Mr. Herzlinger, who wrote the script with Jay Black, comes out swinging, with cut-rate gags and unpleasant clichés, not to mention the treacly number that plays over the opening credits." Amy Nicholson of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' also gave a negative review, writing: "Piscopo - one of the two break-out stars in the 1980s class of ''Saturday Night Live'' he other was Eddie Murphy– isn't just too good for this film, he's too good to be giving it this much effort." Chris Packham from ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote: "Like the climactic musical itself, the film pivots on silly people and absurd situations that demand total, unhinged commitment."

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, how_sweet_it_is_2013 2010s musical films 2010s English-language films American musical films Films directed by Brian Herzlinger 2010s American films