Wedding Singer review
By Mitchell Lockey
staff writer
The 80s are back, and bring with it “comedic gold” in “The Wedding Singer” musical.
Set in 1985, The Wedding Singer follows Robbie Hart ,J. Michael Zygo, as he navigates the treacherous waters of love. Robbie’s aspirations to become the lead singer of a big time rock group never come to fruition. Instead, he finds himself playing guitar and singing at wedding receptions along with the rest of his band, rock star wannabe Sammy, Adam Clough, and the fabulously flamboyant George, Ben Martin, the bassist and keyboardist respectively.
The audience finds out during the opening scene, while diffusing an alcohol induced rant performed by James Bould, that Robbie’s own wedding day is just around the corner.
After a few inspiring words and a far to detailed play-by-play of Rosie’s love life Robbie’s energetic grandmother played by Ellen Karsten. Robbie heads to the wedding chapel to begin the rest of his life with Linda. The wedding singer’s heart is shattered when Linda leaves him standing at the altar, and breaks up with him then and there via a letter.
The scene is performed by Linda, who sings the words of the letter to the side of the stage while Robbie, Sammy, and George read. The song is funny and sexy at the same time. The seductive Linda is stripping out of her wedding dress and crawling, sliding, and stretching her way around the stage while she berates Robbie for his unexciting, not so rock and roll lifestyle.
The rest of the movie tells the story of Robbie’s transition from melancholy and broken hearted to fighting for the heart of Julia, Jillian Zygo, who is set on marrying Glen Guglia, the successful, womanizing alpha male antagonist of the musical, Shain Fike.
The Song “Somebody Kill Me Please,” written by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy for the original movie, is just as hilarious as the big screen version, although I would’ve liked to see the lighting change from blue to red once the anger level ratcheted up.
Most of the songs were great, and were accompanied by good choreography. One song in particular, “Casualty of Love,” had a wonderful homage to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
One song in particular was a bit weak though, mostly because of a flat vocal performance by Fike, who wasn’t able to stand up to the other wonderful voices in the production.
Some of the sets were amazing to look at. The club scene, in which Robbie, Glen, Julia, and Holly, Sammy’s ex-boyfriend and temporary love interest of Robbie, hit the town. It transformed the Stocker Theater into a bouncing nightclub. The set had everything: multiple levels, neon lights, and even a water hose which was used to great effect at the end of Holly’s song. It was a real shock to see such elaborate set pieces and lighting materialize in between scenes like that.
The writing makes excellent use of its setting in the 80s. Jokes about the band Van Halen always staying together, a business executive working with Bernie Madoff, and Starbucks being a stupid idea make the writing very current and funny.
A few of the actors were also exceptional. Clough as Sammy brought an authentic rock star swagger to the character. Karsten’s performance as Rosie was hilarious, bringing big laughs whenever she was in a scene.