The music gets raucous and the dancing a little wild but rest assured that “The Wedding Singer,” playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre, is a non-stop ride of big hair and skimpy mini-skirts, rocker chicks and robot dancing.
The year is 1985. The place is Ridgefield, New Jersey. The Wedding Singer is Robbie Heart the lead in the group Simply Wed. He and his band mates perform at weddings in Ridgefield while he excitedly looks forward to his own wedded bliss just weeks away.
Heart is cooler than cool until his own fiancée, a wild woman named Linda, leaves him stranded at the altar.
Enter Julia, a nice girl, a mild mannered waitress who dreams of marrying her boyfriend Glen, a newly wealthy young buck making his way in the city.
The audience soon learns that with Glen’s sleeked-back hair, a silver DeLorean and new mobile phone with a huge power box attached is what he has to offer Julia. Although he says he loves her, his eye is roving and for Glen, it’s all about money.
While Robbie is trying to recover from his broken heart, he offers to help Julia prepare for her nuptials to Glen, the jerk. The rest, as they say … well, you get the picture.
Throughout this fun ride of a love story there are moments of sheer hilarity. Whenever Linda, who dumped Robbie and played superbly by Felicia Finley, appears on stage, eyes widen and pulses race. With the help of wind machines, blond crazy hair and barely-there clothing, Linda rocks and rolls around the stage trying to win Robbie’s heart back and giving the audience a pleasing jolt of laughs.
In contrast the soothing Julia, played by Laura Benanti, calms the rocker feel and brings us back to the love story. Benanti has a good voice, great range that is steady as a rock. She is a perfect match for Heart, played by Stephen Lynch with much style and gusto. Lynch is perfect for this character being both sweet and loyal while fun and cute. He has a strong voice ripe for the 80s theme and is as lively as the two other members of Simply Wed played by Kevin Cahoon, a hoot during the Bar Mitzvah scene, and Matthew Saldivar another love-struck rocker.
But much of the kudos in the show goes to Richard H. Blake who expertly plays the hateful Glen. In what’s possibly the best number in the show “All About the Green” sung by Glen in his office surrounded by money-grabbing suits, audiences are reminded of the upcoming entrepreneurial age. Glen and his pin-striped buddies bluntly show that life at that time for some was all about what they could get with their cold hard cash. Since Glen is devoid of most feelings he carefully points out that money, cars, what you can get, is what matters most. The lights, the music and the dancing make for this spectacular second act opening number that forces audiences to reflect on that high-powered “me” generation only two decades ago.
During the show, based on the movie of the same name, audiences can step back 20 years and watch carefully for the Swatch watches, Van Halen posters and the Sue Ellen, ala Dallas, shoulder pads that pop up like subliminal messages from the stage.
It is possible that at times during the show that The Wedding Singer might be lost on those who didn’t get the heavy metal or Culture Club hipness of the 1980’s.
However, the singing and dancing are so good that it doesn’t matter if you were into the scene back then. If all that audience members did in the 80’s was watch Crystal Carrington and Dex Dexter in Dynasty, then they’ll love “The Wedding Singer.”
It’s more than worth it to get tickets for one of the last shows before it heads to Broadway in April.
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