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The Wedding
Singer
Presented by:
Fab Nobs
Theatre Inc
Venue:
The New Fab Factory, Bayswater
Reviewer: Nathan
Soutar
Date Reviewed:
Wednesday 1st
April 2009
Rarely has
there been a movie in recent times more ingrained in this
generation’s pop-culture psyche than ‘The Wedding Singer’. It is one
of the films that even though you have the DVD (or VHS) when you see
it on the TV you will still end up watching it (along with all the
commercials) The musical was created in 2006 and turned the beloved
film into a grand scale musical, with all the expected robots,
running men, worms and classic songs from the movie as well as some
new classics as well.
That being
said there has rarely been a musical in recent times that is more
challenging, for not only the lead cast, but also the ensemble. In
order for the show to work you have to have lead actors capable of
living up to the characters made famous in the movie, as well as
great dancers, great rock singers, great musical singers and an
ensemble capable of playing a huge variety of roles throughout the
show.
Never having
been to a Fab Nobs show before the first thing I thought when I sat
down at my chair was the stage seemed to be a bit small for this
particular musical (actually that’s not true; the first thing I
thought was ‘why is this chair so uncomfortable, who are these
people sitting at my table and why was I not told there were cheese
and kabana platters for sale?!’). This show has several numbers
where the stage is literally full of dancers ‘busting a move’ and
having seen how many names were in the cast list I was curious to
see how they could all possibly fit on the stage during these
numbers.
I really
enjoyed the way the show started off, using the fact that the stage
is in a cabaret style venue the three lead males (or the band)
wandered on to stage and started tuning their instruments as the
ensemble slowly sauntered onto stage, as if entering a wedding
reception. Then the band kicked in and the show burst into life with
the opening number. Within seconds the small stage became an issue.
On either side of the stage when ensemble members were dancing and
had to turn they were blocked by two walls at the side and had to
forego their arm movements until they had turned back around from
either wall. The opening number got a great reaction from the crowd
certainly amping them up for the rest of the show, however already
it was apparent that show may have been somewhat over choreographed.
Acknowledging your
cast’s abilities is important and in a venue that has the audience
so close to the cast there is no chance for dancers to get away with
those small mistakes or dancing just behind the beat. Overall the
ensemble did a really good job throughout the show, a special note
must go to two of the male ensemble members, Matt Holly and Danny
Miller, who had to play so many roles it became ridiculous towards
the end!
Robbie was
played Steve Simmons. Vocally, Steve was great with his background
of rock and musicals he certainly had a great tone for this role.
His character work during his journey from fun loving Wedding
Singer, to a depressed/suicidal groom left by his bride on his
wedding day, then into falling in love with Julia, was all to
similar for me. I didn’t see enough of a change between each step in
his character’s development and when you are attempting to live up
to such a famous role you unfortunately have a lot of expectations
to live up to.
Julia was
played perfectly by Amy Larsen. Her voice sounded great (despite the
frequent sound issues throughout the show in that venue, if her
microphone isn’t working it would have just been better to turn it
off rather than have it distract the audience by coming in and out
during her songs). Her character was great as she very subtly fell
in love with Robbie throughout the show, certainly doing justice to
Drew Barrymore’s portrayal.
The rest of
‘the band’ was played by Michael Butler as Sammy and Jay Miller as
George. Sound was once again an issue as George, with a character
voice that is already hard to understand had his voice muffled by
his microphone throughout a lot of the show and many lines were
missed completely. Sammy did a good job with his song ‘Single’ which
got a great reaction, but in other more dialogue based parts of the
show his Jersey accent seemed to get in the way of his delivery of
lines. Strongest of the supporting males was definitely Karl
McNamara as Glenn. His song was great, dancing was strong and I
truly hated him (that is actually a compliment for his character).
For me the
female supporting cast certainly stole the show! Jess Barlow’s hair
should win a guild award for its performance alone! Jess was
fantastic as Holly, nailing her two songs, showing amazing dancing
skills as well as some great comic timing along the way. Melanie Ott
as Linda had the stand out song of the night with her note to Robbie
on his Wedding Day, a song that starts off as a ballad then bursts
into a metal chorus (the use of a hair dryer for the rock hair in
the wind effect was also a stand out moment!). In a close second for
show stealing song was Dot Parker as Grandmas Rose showing that she
was certainly not too old to shake that thing (or is it thang?).
The lighting
design was a joy to behold, with the back wall of the set covered in
light bars that changed colours continuously throughout the show; I
do not envy lighting designer Jason Bovaird for how long that would
have taken to set up. As I have mentioned sound was an issue and
while the band was well directed by MD Phil Haeusler, the sound
levels between the band and the singers were not great, so the full
effect of the band was lost through out the show.
Overall the
show had some fantastic moments but some directional decisions
seemed to hamper the quality of the show. For instance: deciding to
do the show in New Jersey accents, because it is mentioned they are
in Jersey once or twice in the script, is understandable, however
when an accent gets in the way of delivering lines and character
development. Or when the entire cast can not do the accent properly
it is sometimes a good idea to do a more standard American accent in
order for the actors to feel more comfortable on stage. Another
element that distracted from the production was the props and sets
the creative team decided to use, such as plastic chairs and
departures sign in the airport scene made up of three A4 pieces of
paper printed off and taped next to each other. These elements did
nothing to enhance the show and if anything distracted from
important scenes. Director and choreographer, Robbie Carmelotti
undertook a mammoth job in doing both these roles in this show and
while at times it came together brilliantly there were various other
times where the show seemed to lack direction in character
development and motivation. The crowd at Fab Nobs absolutely loved
their trip back in time to the 80’s and you could see the nostalgic
grins plastered across their face for the entire show, for this the
cast and team should be congratulated.
Nathan has
been performing and directing for over 10 years in musical and
“straight” theatre. While living in Perth some memorable highlights
included playing Nick Bottom in “Midsummer Nights Dream”, Hassler in
the ‘The Pyjama Game’ and Big Jules in “Guys and Dolls”. After the
big move across the Nullarbor, Nathan took some time off to finish
studying but still found time to perform in Werribee Theatre’s
“Urinetown” as Mr McQueen and several other shows along the way.
Following his graduation from university last year, Nathan has
ensured any free time he may have enjoyed in 2009 will be now
dedicated to the roles of Vice Principal Panch in Catchment
Player’s “25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee” and Ali Hakim
in “Oklahoma” with MDMS.
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