The Wedding Singer

The Wedding Singer was originally a film produced in the 1990s and is a story of a young man who enjoys singing in the company of his two friends, the trio forming a band, to entertain guests at weddings. All goes well until his fiancé jilts him on the day before his own wedding. In the throes of getting over his broken heart he becomes attracted to a young waitress, Julia, whom he has known for some time but his timing is bad as she has just become engaged herself to a wealthy ‘big-wig’ in the city.

The set was cleverly designed, consisting mainly of flights of steps to different levels on which to perform making excellent use of the stage area and at the same time allowing for very slick and rapid scene changes. I loved the basement bedroom scene where the bed pulled out and pushed away again, underneath another level on which other scenes were enacted.

Alex Brown played Robbie Hart, showing great youthful energy and positivity at the start until his life seemed to be falling apart, at which time he became very negative and unsure as to where he was heading. Among his many songs ‘Somebody Kill Me’ and ‘Grow Old with You’ were the two I found most moving, especially the latter which he sang with Amber Kelly who played Julia.  Amber looked and acted the part superbly and sang all her numbers with great confidence. She was a delight to watch on stage and seemed the ideal choice for the role. Jack Winrow as Sammy and Adam Knight as George were great as the band which supported Robbie at the weddings etc. These were two dramatically different personalities, played in totally different ways both exciting and memorable for their excellent performances.

On the female side Kiarnie Camp played Holly (Julia’s friend and Sammy’s girl), Danielle Wrightson played Angie and Vicky Scales played Linda (engaged to Robbie but jilted him at the altar). They all gave convincing performances, singing and acting with total conviction.

On the slightly more serious side, Matt Collins gave an excellent performance as Glen, another one to be jilted at the altar and last but not least Sarah Papouis as Grandma Rosie. She was hilarious every time she came on stage, reducing the audience to fits of laughter.

The many ensemble members all had opportunities to build on individual characters, many with spoken or sung solo lines as well as great chorus numbers. They all danced with huge amounts of energy and sang the many songs with bundles of enthusiasm.

This was an outstanding show, very cleverly directed and choreographed, well lit and well orchestrated. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

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