Energetic cast, 1980s nostalgia power Metropolis’ ‘Wedding Singer’
“The Wedding Singer” — 3 stars
The high-octane performances by the cast of Metropolis Performing Arts Centre’s “The Wedding Singer” deliver enough energy to power an IndyCar to the checkered flag.
Sheer exuberance and a fresh-faced cast fuel director Amber Mak’s breezy revival of this middling musical based on the 1998 film starring Adam Sandler as a wedding crooner and Drew Barrymore as the big-hearted waitress who catches his eye.
A Chicago-area veteran known for her lively, crowd-pleasing productions at Marriott, Drury Lane and Paramount theaters, Mak — in her Metropolis directorial debut — injects wit and heart into the by-the-numbers tuner starring likable, tousle-haired newcomer Abraham Deitz-Green.
He plays singer/songwriter Robbie Hart. A young man in love with love, Robbie fronts a Ridgefield, New Jersey, wedding band consisting of pals Sammy (Danny Dollase) and George (Andres J. DeLeon).
Most of their gigs take place at the Touch of Class Catering and Banquet Hall, where they work alongside Jersey girl waitress Holly (Jamie Dillon Grossman), a sassy Madonna wannabe, and her kindly cousin Julia Sullivan (a winsome Teah Kiang Mirabelli), whose longtime boyfriend Glen (a suitably smarmy Peyton Schoenhofer) is a philandering Wall Street broker.
The opening number — the exuberant “It’s Your Wedding Day” emblematic of the mostly original power pop and rock score (which slyly references ’80s chart toppers) by composer Matthew Sklar and lyricist Chad Beguelin — concludes with Robbie happily announcing his pending nuptials.
After his fiancée, Linda (Katherine Abel, channeling an MTV video vixen), leaves him at the altar, Robbie drowns his sorrows in booze and sinks into depression, which Deitz-Green hilariously conveys in the biting “Somebody Kill Me.” A holdover from the movie, the tune by Sandler and screenwriter Tim Herlihy elicited some of the production’s biggest laughs.
An angry rant at a wedding reception gets Robbie tossed in a dumpster, prompting newly engaged Julia to console him with the whimsically earnest “Come Out of the Dumpster.”
“When life gives you garbage, use it to climb,” she advises.
Following rom-com tropes, Robbie and Julia develop feelings for each other (which neither act upon) while at the same time misunderstandings keep them apart. Until Robbie’s confession (the sweet “Grow Old With You,” another Sandler-Herlihy tune from the film) sparks the inevitable happy ending.
Faithful to Herlihy’s screenplay, the steeped-in-nostalgia plot is paper-thin as are the characters. Period pop-culture references — big hair and neon, tracksuits and tulle, giant mobile phones, assorted catch phrases, Top 40 titles that comprise whole sections of dialogue — dominate the often funny, but decidedly adult-themed book by Beguelin and Herlihy.
That said, “The Wedding Singer” has its charms. Nich O’Neil’s lively choreography incorporates cheeky references to the running man, cabbage patch, moonwalk and other 1980s dances. O’Neil also incorporates some crowd-pleasing moves from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.
Music director and conductor Carolyn Brady’s tight, onstage septet occupies a riser on Milo Bue’s fringe-draped set framed by shiny taffeta curtains.
Among the veterans appearing for the first time at Metropolis is Caron Buinis, who plays rap-loving Rosie, Robbie’s uninhibited grandmother, and Jodie Gage, who plays Julia’s practical mother Angie, who urges her daughter to choose the financially secure Glen over the financially strapped Robbie. Another actor worth noting is ensemble member Matthew Hommel, who is very funny as an intoxicated barfly and a Ronald Reagan celebrity impersonator.
Regarding the aforementioned newcomers, “The Wedding Singer” marks the Metropolis’ debut of a number of cast and artistic team members, reflecting the theater’s ongoing efforts to expand its talent pool, which, in the Chicago area, runs deep.
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Location: Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights, (847) 577-2121, metropolisarts.com
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 24
Running time: About 2 hours 20 minutes, with intermission
Tickets: $25-$49
Parking: Nearby garage and street parking
Rating: For teens and older; contains strong language, sexual situations and mature subject matter