Hannah Sedlacek and Juliane Godfrey (Photo by Ashley Erikson)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
The Colony Theatre
Through June 29
RECOMMENDED
To appreciate The Wedding Singer — the stage musical adapted from the 1998 film, now playing at The Colony in Burbank — it’s best to discount the anti-feminist message that pulsates throughout — the noxious notion that all women covet marriage and view it as the be-all and end-all of their happiness. Admittedly, ignoring this theme is hard to do; it permeates the show, despite the presumed intent of its creators – book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, lyrics by Beguelin, music by Matthew Sklar — to make what happens on stage the subject of satire.
But once you’ve managed to mostly shut it out (this viewer was wincing at antiquated tropes right to the end), good things await. Performed by an attractive and talented ensemble, this production delivers endearing moments, snazzy dancing, pleasing vocals and lots of laughs.
Blake Jenner plays Robbie, the title role Adam Sandler assumed in the film. It’s the 1980s, and Robbie, a nice enough fella, (although not a terrific songwriter), makes a living as a singer at other people’s weddings. When we meet him, he’s crazy in love with Linda (Natalie Holt MacDonald) who, shortly into the story, dumps him, apparently for no reason other than that he is too nice. Around the same time Robbie meets Julia (Hannah Sedlacek), a waitress, who is sweet and kind and hooked up with a greedy Wall Street type shark (Michael Austin Deni), whose flaws she fails to perceive. Julia does her best to buoy Robbie’s spirits as he struggles with post-dump depression, and from that point the story moves in a foreseeable arc toward its foreseeable ending as these two nice people strive to overcome the obstacles that keep them apart. These include Julia’s bad-apple fiancé and Robbie’s own hapless and under-confident nature.
Directed by Michael Donovan, the production’s charms include the ensemble, which seems to be having the time of their lives dancing up a storm (choreography by Michelle Elkin), and gamely undertaking a variety of cameo roles, including such celebrity look-alikes as Ronald Reagan (Mike Baker), Cyndi Lauper (Veronica Carolina Leite) and Billy Idol (Michael Wells). While Jenner does fine as the goofy, gawky Robbie, the character to root for is Sedlacek’s Julia, who manages to come off as the ultimate nice girl without ever appearing icky. The other standout is Juliane Godfrey who steals scene after scene as Julia’s saucier, take-no-prisoners BFF. Deni hits the mark as Julia’s smarmy husband-to-be, and MacDonald is a hoot as the slow-witted but guileful Linda. And the night I attended, Kay Cole as Robbie’s grandma won the heart of the audience as she hoofed across the stage as blithely as the 20 and 30-somethings around her.
Justin Huen’s crayon-box lighting — neon red, blue, yellow, green — enliven Mark Mendelson’s two-tier scenic design, which maximizes the room performers have to move. Jenna Bergstraesser’s lively costuming ranges from Julia and Holly’s neat little waitress uniforms to the conniving Linda’s hilariously comic get-up as a lascivious bride. Leland Stephens’ wigs add period flavor to the young women characters and a wacky edge to the impersonators.
So in the end, you just have to put aside your political correctness for the evening, and smile as you track, to its happy ending, this perfectly predictable musical staged with talent, energy and pzazz.
The Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third St., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sat.-Sun., 2 pm, Sun., 7 pm; thru June 29. www.colonytheatre.org Running time: approximately two hours and 10 minutes with an intermission.
