The Wedding Singer

The Wedding Singer is a musical based on the 1998 film of the same name and starred Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. It is set in the 1980‘s and tells the story of Robbie Hart who lives in his grandmother’s basement in New Jersey and is lead singer for a trio who play at weddings. His dreams of being a singer/songwriter are long gone and all he wants now is to get married himself but he loses all hope when he is jilted at the altar by his fiancee, Linda. He takes out his bitterness at subsequent weddings until he meets Julia, a young waitress, who wins his heart but is about to get married to Glen, a wealthy Wall Street Broker. The opening number ‘It’s Your Wedding Day’ was rapturously sung by Robbie with the whole company being involved in this happy occasion. Tom Banks was very impressive as Robbie Hart. He captured the humour, the outrage, the frustrations of the character ideally whilst still maintaining that nice guy appeal. He has a great singing voice which was very much in evidence in the many numbers he had from both ballads and to the more up-tempo ones. I loved his delivery of ‘Somebody Kill Me’ and the duet with Julia ‘Grow Old With You’ was just so moving. His fellow band members were Sammy and George who try to guide Robbie through his love life. Sam Ward was superb as Sammy. His comedic timing and hilarious antics as he tried to win back his girlfriend, Holly, were so brilliantly acted out and he was a good singer to boot! Martin Counter was in his element camping it up as the flamboyant, rather eccentric George and his duet ‘Move That Thang’ with Rosie was priceless. Rachel Clines excelled as Julia a somewhat naive, sweet, sensitive and understanding waitress. Her singing and acting were faultless and there was a lovely chemistry between herself and Robbie and their many duets were just delightful. Helen Perry was superb as Holly, Julia’s cousin and fellow waitress. She too excels in both acting and singing and when she turned into a sexy and sassy rock chick in ‘Saturday Night in the City’ it was just fabulous. Dale Hind was every inch the money-loving, overbearing, full of himself Glen Guglia and he really came into his own when he splendidly delivered ‘All About the Green’. Linda, the ex-fiancee of Robbie, was seductively and sexily played by Cat Howourth. Cat has an amazing singing voice and her two numbers, ‘A Note from Linda’ and ‘Let Me Come Home’ were top-notch. The shameless and feisty Grandma Rosie was triumphantly played by Sara Evens-Bolger. I loved the ‘rapping’ and she can definitely shake and ‘Move That Thang’! The small role of Angie, Julia’s mother, was well played by Emma Woodyet. Great support came from those in the more minor roles and from the ‘fake celebrities’ at the Vegas venue, especially the brilliant ‘take-off’ by Phil Stanley as Mr. T. - hilarious! The ensemble worked extremely hard as there are numerous big singing/dance routines which were all carried out so proficiently, enthusiastically and stylistically. The sets were fine, as were the props, and the costumes certainly fitted the bill. There were no problems with sound, the lighting design was ideal (apart from a few spot-light issues) and the band was just perfect. Altogether, it was a thoroughly entertaining show. Congratulations to everyone involved.  

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