Sunday Arts Magazine

26 Apr 2021

The Wedding Singer

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The Wedding Singer

As the cast wows in rehearsals, David Venn Enterprises is thrilled to announce the stellar creative team and full cast list behind the hilarious, feel-good musical, The Wedding Singer.

Tickets to Adelaide, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney are selling like Madonna records viaweddingsingermusical.com.au. Get in fast to snap up the good seats before they’re gone!

Multi-Green Room Award nominated director Alister Smith is helming this Tony nominated musical. Alister’s 2018 and 2019 tours for Bring It On: The Musical received widespread acclaim including sell out seasons. He is buzzing with excitement since The Wedding Singer rehearsals began in Melbourne.

“Taking place in New York in 1985, this musical is about finding your voice and following your heart, during a decade of great change and exponential evolution. It’s about self-expression, breaking away from the norm and defining your own rules. Our rehearsal room is electric – both our principal cast and ensemble are on fire; they’re working together so well!” says Alister.

Michael Ralph (Georgy Girl, The Boy From Oz) is choreographing the explosive 80s spectacle, following a Green Room Award for his work on Bring It On: The Musical.

“Audiences can expect high energy dance sequences, plus plenty of fabulous, iconic 80s dance moves. Our choreography is inspired by the most iconic music videos and dance films of the 80s, which I’ve had a ridiculous amount of fun immersing myself in,” says Michael.

His choreography is inspired by music videos from Madonna, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul and film classics like Flashdance, Footloose, Stayin Alive, Fast Forward andBreakin’.

Musical Director Daniel Puckey was formerly the Music Director for the Australian tour of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, in addition to being the Associate Musical Director and Conductor on The Book of Mormon, The Wizard of Oz, The Bodyguard Musical and The Lion King.

“The Wedding Singer musical will be an 80’s dream; a neon fantasy that remembers everything we loved about the 1980s. We’ve got the most fantastic original score, with a couple of favourite tunes from the movie mixed in,” says Daniel.

Costume Designer Kim Bishop’s credits include Sweeney Todd, while he was nominated for a Green Room Award for his costume design on The Light in the Piazza (Life Like Company).

Triple threat actress Kirby Burgess (Barnum, Dirty Dancing) has been cast in the role of Robbie’s ex-girlfriend Linda, joined by dynamite talent Hollie James (Shrek the Musical, Rocky Horror Show) as Angie, and Haydan Hawkins (Miss Saigon, Into The Woods) as Sammy.

They join the previously announced lead cast including Christian Charisiou in the title role of Robbie Hart, Teagan Wouters as Julia, Stephen Mahy as Glen, Nadia Komazec as Holly, Ed Deganos as George and celebrated character performer Susan-ann Walker as Robbie’s naughty Grandma, Rosie (played by Betty White in the film).

Bringing the high-impact 80s dance sequences to life will be ensemble members Annie Chiswell, Romy Vuksan, Asmara Soekotjo, Katrina Bickerton, Brittany Page, Connor Morel, Jerome Javier, Simon Fairweather, Sebastian Johnston, Max Patterson and Luke Haberecht. Amongst them, they’ve lit up stages for major musicals including The Wizard of Oz and Shrek the Musical, and have toured with the likes of Sneaky Sound System, Guy Sebastian and Havana Brown.

Penned by the writer of the original smash-hit movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, The Wedding Singer musical achieved a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical.

Following performances on Broadway and across the UK, this comedy features all your favourite characters and a sparkling new soundtrack that does for the 80s what Hairspray did for the 60s.

Robbie Hart is New Jersey’s number one wedding singer and the life of the party. That is until his own fiancée strands him at the altar. Bitter and broken, Robbie begins to make every wedding as disastrous as his own until a warm-hearted waitress named Julia intervenes. Only trouble is, Julia’s about to be–you guessed it–married! Can Robbie pull off the performance of the decade and win the girl of his dreams?

The Wedding Singer features music by Matthew Sklar (Elf The Musical), lyrics by Chad Beguelin(Aladdin), and a book by Beguelin and Tim Herlihy. A long-time collaborator of Adam Sandler, Tim wrote the classic hit films Happy Gilmore and Billy Maddison, as well as several other Sandler-starring blockbusters in addition to The Wedding Singer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:24 — 11.9MB)

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