Reviewer: Beth Detloff
Pull out your shoulder pads and tune up your keyboard ties, everyone’s favorite decade hits the stage in Saginaw. Season ninety-three at our local Pit and Balcony Theatre opens up with a heartbreaker. Over the next few hours that heartbreaker turns to a heartwarming happy ending for all. If you are already feeling the seasonal sadness pull you in as the sun sets early, pick up a ticket to The Wedding Singer and the laughs will pick up your mood, gaurunteed.
Fans of the 1998 Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie will find many surprising changes in the story of Robbie and Julia. One thing that runs parallel is the big hair and big hits, with references to Pat Benatar and appearances of Tina Turner. What more could audiences hope for? Not one but two love stories, an underdog getting his day, frizzy hair and big makeup dares, this show has just about everything you could want.
If I have not mentioned yet, The Wedding Singer is a musical. Campy choreography fills the stage and live musicians to back it up. Ten musicians set the tunes behind the stage with all the keyboard and trumpet solos you didn’t know you needed. If you have thought to yourself that a musical needed more cowbell well have I got a spoiler for you! When “casualty of love” comes on you may be sitting in your seat sympathizing with Robbie. After all, living life means being a casualty of love at some point, we have all been there. I hope you will take the time to realize the cowbell is being so majestically played by George it almost steals the scene.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the fantastic production team that Pit and Balcony has. They are the reason the audience can so easily imagine a Saturday nightclub, a chapel in Vegas, and Grandma’s basement. The neons were flashing and the mood lighting was always just right. Not to mention the stage crew seamlessly and quickly changing set pieces, never pulling focus or pulling the audience away. A decade heavy show leads to fun costume and set choices. The ensemble cast kept audience members laughing as they showed up through each scene as different characters.
This musical was engaging as it was memorable. Moments pop in from the movie with enough changes to keep the audience guessing what might transpire between love interests. The secondary love story is the one you may find yourself rooting for hardest of all. Sammy and Holly find love right in front of our eyes. Sammy played by Jordan Climie should have been called the wedding zinger for his delivery of joke after joke. His comedic timing pulled big laughs from the audience.
Speaking of pulling big laughs, you could feel the energy from the audience increase everytime George, played by Matthew Howe, or Grandma Rosie, played by Terri Weitze, took the stage. They had me wondering if the cast was having as much fun up there as it looked. And not to write any spoilers but there is a duet that is worth waiting for. So “move that thang” to the box office. For twenty bucks a ticket, and a few extra at concessions, you can have a night that is not “all about the green”.
The Wedding Singer is on stage September 27-29, and October 4-6. You have five more chances to root for Robbie and Julia on the battlefield of love.
Featured at Saginaw Art Museum