The Wedding Singer

The Wedding Singer by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy with music by Matthew Sklar is based on the movie of the same name and takes us back to the 1980’s with big hair,  big collars and loud music.

The story centres on Robbie Hart, New Jersey’s favourite Wedding Singer, who was the life and soul of the party until his fiancee leaves him at the altar.  Enter Julia, a waitress who soon wins his affection, but is soon to be married herself. What can he do?

The band under the leadership of MD Gareth were set under a rostra at the rear of the stage and were well controlled all evening, never drowning out the performers.

The role of Robbie was taken by Jonny Rees, in what was amazingly his first ever time on stage, in an acting capacity, being well known in the area for his stage technical abilities. Jonny accompanied himself on the  guitar in a few of his numbers and is to be congratulated on his first major role, as he told me  one off the bucket list. Well done.

Julia was played by Alys Williams and I liked her characterisation as the winsome waitress, calmly soothing Robbie and supporting him.

The role of Hollie, Julia’s best friend was taken by Emma Jones, and this for me was a lovely performance which I thoroughly enjoyed. A very good performance by this actress vocally and was a standout role during the production..

Sammy and George, the other band members were played by Tom Goodridge and Connor Edwards, both played their roles really well and I thoroughly enjoyed Single, when they were joined on stage by  Jonny, Ben Smith and Joseph Gilpin, a very funny routine.

Grandma Rosie was played by Victoria Evans who brought a great deal of humour to her character.

Julia’s fiancee Glen was played by Jack Billington who took on the role of the baddie quite well. I thought Jack gave a really good performance.

The role of Linda, the fiancee who dumped Robbie was taken by Jenna Barnard, another strong performance by this actress.

The ensemble gathered by Ollie seemed to be having the time of their lives and it was lovely to see a wide range of ages on stage.

Congratulations to you all and thank you for the welcome.

The views in this report are solely of the author.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.