Stage Review - The Wedding Singer (Tacoma Musical Playhouse)
Stage Review - The Wedding Singer
Presented By: Tacoma Musical Playhouse - Tacoma, WA
Show Run: March 21 - April 13, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, March 29, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
It’s funny sometimes. One or two less than optimal experiences can influence how you feel about an entire genre or canon. So it is for me with The Wedding Singer. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore the 1998 Adam Sandler film, featuring Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi, and so many other great character actors in what I feel is a satirical and comedic, but loving tribute to the 1980s. Yes, for sure the film is cheesy, but it’s made that way, and as cheesy as it is, it works, because it’s got heart. The characters are rooted in a reality that is relatable to those of us who came of age in the 80s, and though the caricatures are just that, bold and exaggerated, like the color palette in the scenic design, we, as an audience, believe in them, root for them, because we see ourselves in them. Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan (Sandler and Barrymore) are real, and that’s why we love them. There’s a lot about the movie that doesn’t take itself seriously, and one thing that I’ve learned about musicals that are based on movies, especially those taken from comedies, is that if they only lean on the humor, they are destined to fail. That’s why the musical version of The Wedding Singer, written by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy (who also wrote the lyrics), with music by Matthew Sklar, needs to tread carefully, and in its Broadway production, which premiered in 2006, it did, even receiving a Tony nomination for Best Musical. There’s a formula to making this musical work, and each of its ingredients needs to be applied in equal parts. The first is the theming. Clearly, The Wedding Singer is a 1980s musical. The book is chock full of puns, jokes, innuendo, and wordplay, each containing references to that decade, and the music, even though it’s obvious the creator couldn’t get licensing for some of the key 1980s songs used in the film (I’m looking at you “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Rapper’s Delight”), the songs are all clearly meant to infer or refer to the 80s. So, it follows that the scenic design must reflect that as well, which includes the costuming, hair and makeup, and set design. Secondly, there’s the humor, the jokes themselves, of which there are a lot. It’s important for the humor to be there, along with the idea that none of this is taken seriously at face value. Further, the actors need to have an understanding of the references, too, especially when many of them may not have even been alive in the 1980s. Finally, there’s the heart, the believability and relatability of the characters themselves and in their relationships. There has to be an empathy toward Robbie and Julia, and a chemistry between them that the audience feels, despite each seemingly being pulled in separate directions. And the supporting characters have to be relatable as well. Too often, in this three legged stool, either of the first two legs are focused on by directors, either making sure that it’s big and it’s 80s, or it’s a laugh riot, without remembering that at the end of the day, when all of that window dressing is stripped away, the story is just about a boy and a girl who love each other.
All of that (I apologize, I know it’s a lot) is to say that I came into Saturday’s performance of The Wedding Singer at Tacoma Musical Playhouse a tad skeptical. I’ve seen a few versions of the show, and frankly I hadn’t seen one of them that balanced the three aspects of this story very well at all. That is, until now. For the first time that I can remember, a single production of a show changed my attitude about a story 180-degrees. The trepidation I walked into TMP with on Saturday melted away shortly after the curtain went up. This show, directed and choreographed not surprisingly by Harry Turpin, with music direction by Olivia Pedroza, has restored my faith in The Wedding Singer franchise as a whole. The scenic design is on point, I think there is one example of every single 1980s hairstyle on the TMP stage in this show, and everyone is wearing a suitable amount of eyeliner, the set (designed by Harry, Dennis Kurtz, and Jon Douglas Rake) feels like a 1980s dance party, with its bright and fluorescent pinks, yellows, and greens, a palette that carries over into Krista Lofgren’s costume design, which also includes the odd wide belt, girls with men’s dress shirts and ties, the requisite Michael Jackson jacket, and so much more. The whole style of the show is a reminiscence to that particular decade, which is why I say, for the first leg of the design stool, mission accomplished, it’s exactly the right design for this show.
The second piece is, of course, the humor. The Wedding Singer is as funny as the film is, but in a different way. It not only pokes fun at the times (“It’s called a CD player, I spent like 900 bucks for this thing”), it also laughs at the movie, and at itself. It’s corny where it needs to be, and skirts the line where going over it would make it seem patronizing. It’s easy for the actors to step over that line, but none of them do here. Tarquinn White as Robbie Hart most definitely understands the assignment, he’s that hapless aspiring singer/songwriter who aims for bigger things, but somehow is stuck playing in a band that only performs at weddings, along with Sammy, who sheds his limo from the movie for his bass guitar here and is played by Peter Knickerbocker, and George, Richard Cubi, who is that Boy George adjacent keyboard player, who in the musical is a little less subtle about his orientation than in the film. The trio work well together, each sort of that 1980s underachiever, talented but with so little self esteem there’s nothing they can do to take advantage of the talent. And especially Robbie, who is left at the alter by his psychologically abusive punk rock fiancé Linda, played excessively good by Melissa Maañao, her exaggerated delivery especially in Act 1, is so good, none of them receive anything positive from their significant others. In fact, the only one who seems to say anything positive to Robbie is his grandmother Rosie, played by Kathy Kluska, that is, until he meets Julia Sullivan. Savana Smith-Dry plays Julia, and out of all of the other versions of The Wedding Singer that I’ve seen, Savana seems to embody what it means to be Julia the most. Clearly not in love with her boyfriend, junk bond salesmen Glen Guglia (Josh Wingerter), feeling pressure from her mother Angie (Railene Gordon) to marry for money, because, well, it’s the 1980s, and that’s what it was all about then. Savana’s Julia is sweet, she’s got a big heart, and though she knows Glen isn’t right for her, she persists, until she finally realizes, after a few twists and turns, and with the help of some Las Vegas entertainers, that Robbie is the one for her. What Savana does here, though, is she portrays this layered character beautifully, the audience knows that what she’s presenting on the outside belies her true feelings on the inside. The chemistry between Tarquinn and Savana is also good, the moments in which they almost come together feel like it, their attraction is palpable until they are forced to pull away from each other. At the same time, Brynne Geiszler plays Holly, Julia’s promiscuous best friend, who like Peter’s Sammy seems to have this “cool” air about her, but underneath is as lonely as the rest of the group. In this love story, Brynne’s Holly tries to fill the void in her own way, but is it with something that lasts or something more superficial? Each of these actors bring this realness to their roles, and as well as they deliver the humor, which they do, physically, through their dialogue, and their music, they also meet the third requirement of a successful version of The Wedding Singer, the heart.
I give a lot of the credit here to director Harry Turpin, and his vision for the show, making sure that all of the aspects are given an equal amount of attention and love. And while the design, the humor, and the heart, are all extremely well presented, all of this is wrapped up in the fact that this is a musical, and there’s nobody better than Harry at putting a complete musical package together like this. And Harry’s work, as both director and choreographer, along with Olivia Pedroza’s music direction, and the live orchestra that she conducts for this show, together make the musical a winner. The show begins with the entire company and the number “It’s Your Wedding Day”, one of the wedding ceremony performances that Robbie and his band performs at, though if you’re familiar with the film, you’ll recall that after Robbie gets dumped, he also plays a number of other kinds of events, and one of the funnier moments in this show is one of those, “Today You Are a Man”, an excellent song performed by Tarquinn, Peter, and Richard as Robbie, Sammy, and George for a Bar Mitzvah. There are so many of these numbers that are humorously done, and they’re also very well performed. The ensemble numbers are big, the largesse group is solid, and Harry’s choreography is very well done. In fact, some of my favorite moments in the show are in these numbers, one of which is the Act 2 opener, featuring Josh Wingerter as Glen, Tarquinn’s Robbie, and the ensemble with a tribute to capitalism called “It’s All About the Green”. First off, Josh is a fantastic Glen, he’s slimy, he’s slick, and he seems a little too good at knowing how to be a junk bond salesman. He leads “It’s All About the Green”, executing Harry’s moves extremely well, as does Tarquinn and the ensemble, but it’s really Josh who makes this my favorite number in the show and a great way to kick off Act 2. While Josh opens Act 2 with a fantastic performance, Brynne’s Holly closes Act 1 with “Saturday Night in the City”, in which the entire company is at a typical 1980s nightclub, and where Robbie finds out that Glen has no intention of being faithful to Julia after they get married. It’s a turning point in the story, and it’s part of the end of an act that shows how good Brynne is as Julia’s misguided cousin and best friend. At the end of the day, though, it’s the story of Robbie and Julia, and that’s means it’s up to Tarquinn and Savana to bring the heart to the story, which they do, in spades, not just in their acting, which I mentioned above, but in their vocal ability. There are a few, what I like to refer to as “make it or break it” songs in The Wedding Singer, numbers that at a minimum have to work, the others being icing on the cake. Clearly “Grow Old Along With You” is one of these. A classic sung by Adam Sandler to Drew Barrymore in the film, this comes at the climax of the story, and doesn’t just have to work musically, it has to work in its emotional delivery, initially sung softly by Robbie, ostensibly from out of nowhere, and building until the couple’s relationship is realized. Tarquinn and Savana deliver here, and they do throughout the entirety of the production. Their Act 1 “Come Out of the Dumpster” is a sweet, pleading song, when Julia is trying to get Robbie out of his funk, and again, the believability in Savana’s characterization sells this. A final note about Tarquinn, and that’s in the soul he brings to his singing. It’s a fresh take on this aspect of the character that I really like.
After a number of misses with versions of The Wedding Singer, leave it up to Harry Turpin to restore my faith in the franchise. Under his direction, the Tacoma Musical Playhouse production equally balances the stylistic reminiscence of the 1980s, the humor of the film and a musical that pokes fun at the decade, its culture, and ultimately itself, and the heart of a story that makes its characters relatable and human. Wrapped in the trappings of a musical with songs that are fun, melodies that are catchy, and choreography that proves that Harry is at the top of his game, The Wedding Singer is a fun, nostalgic, and reinvigorating night out at the theatre, and you don’t even have to have grown up in the 80s to think that…..but it probably helps.
The Tacoma Musical Playhouse production of The Wedding Singer runs on stage in Tacoma through April 13. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.tmp.org/.
Photo credit: Dennis Kurtz
