Review: Wisteria Theater’s ‘The Wedding Singer’ Is a Blast From the Past

The newest major addition to regional Southern California theater, the Wisteria Theater Company, has refused to halt its momentum even for a nanosecond since bursting out of the gates this past February with Avenue Q, followed by The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and now the exceedingly entertaining The Wedding Singer, the musical variation of the 1998 film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore — the first of their three beloved films together. Against all odds, 99 seats or not, Wisteria’s rendition of the Tony-nominated Wedding Singer feels just as big, bold, and beautiful — as a love letter to the 1980s — compared with the production’s conventionally larger and sprawled-out staging.

As much as The Wedding Singer’s premise makes us laugh, it also tugs at our most innate impulse — to love and be loved by the right person. It’s 1985 and Robbie Hart (Cameron James Parker) is the frontman of Simply Wed, a band for hire at weddings, alongside bassist Sammy (Tristan Turner) and keytar player George (Christopher J. Thume). They’re performing at a familiar setting, the Touch of Class Banquet Hall in New Jersey (pronounced “Joisey”), toasting a couple who just got hitched. Robbie proudly announces to the guests he’s getting married to his fiancée Linda (Shelby Miguel) the next day before banquet waitress Julia (Joelle Tshudy), who conveys her own not-so-subtle aspirations for marriage to Wall Street beau Glen (Troy Dailey), trips into him. Despite being on separate matrimonial trajectories, Robbie and Julia cordially hit it off, with the latter asking the former to sing at her wedding if she indeed gets married. However, as Robbie gets jilted at the altar and Julia gets closer to the crestfallen Robbie, with a subsequent assist by her best friend Holly (Haley Wolff), the audience finds itself heartily rooting for a favorable, 11th-hour outcome at a “White House” wedding chapel in Las Vegas.

For two-and-a-half hours, The Wedding Singer is an adrenaline rush back to a decade that VH1 spent half its existence lionizing when neon, Michael Jackson, big hair, and simpler desires characterized its people and their interests. At Wisteria Theater, tickets double as invitations to a Sydni Sawyer scene-designed wedding with flower bouquets, tablecloth-covered seating arrangements (for attendees), a canopy, a hanging disco ball, and the venue’s gargantuan 4K screen where appropriately VHS-quality news clips of the era are spliced with digitized backgrounds of, for instance, a long-defunct Waldenbooks store at a mall in 1985.

Director and screen designer Brayden Hade, just as he did with Bee, maximizes the material far beyond the pages written by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy; similarly, music director Nolan Monsibay draws out a symphony of melodic voices, the sheet music for which was originally penned by Matthew Sklar, to the extent they can comfortably go head-to-head with Broadway’s finest. Not to mention, lighting/sound designer Josh Collins has ensured an environment befitting an intimate but boisterously fun gathering, and wig master Taylor Renee Castle alongside costume designer Lexi Collins have cheekily captured the “decade of decadence.”

Parker, who captures some of Sandler’s guttural idiosyncrasies while also making the role firmly his own, is a revelation as Hart. There’s an indisputable genuineness about Parker, a legitimate guitar strummer, who wears Hart’s emotions on his sleeve, shifting from buoyant to despondent and intensely agonized, like with the searingly touching and funny “Somebody Kill Me” and foot-stomping “Casualty of Love.” It would be easy to become a loud-mouthed caricature here, but, due to Parker’s grounding of the character, the blue velvet-coated protagonist never loses his humanity or relatability.

Opposite Parker is Tshudy, whose bright-timbred and unimpeachable vocal quality renders Julia into a woman worthy of Robbie’s dreams, even if the realization comes a little later. Julia is not just an encouraging voice of reason for Robbie when he’s literally down in the dumps, but her innocent wistfulness, as in “Someday,” performed to perfection by Tshudy, is why she’s the cure to Robbie’s ills.

More than just being Julia’s confidante sidekick clad in 80s gym-wear chic, Wolff’s Holly is a powerhouse presence — as a sleek dancer and singer who belts out her throw-caution-to-the-wind yearning to party hard on a night out on the town in the Act I, dancefloor-burning “Saturday Night in the City.” Beyond Holly’s vapid exterior, though, is a woman who is also wise enough to know when not to relinquish opportunities.

Turner, who portrays Holly’s ex-boyfriend Sammy, has a moonwalking cool factor, personableness, and smooth-as-silk voice that ingratiates his character to Holly and the wedding guests.

Thume, whose persona is a nod to the exuberant Boy George, exudes charisma out of his pores, razzle-dazzling with his saucy non-verbals and vocal runs in “George’s Prayer” — a hysterical, in-story solo serenade at a bar mitzvah. In Act II, Thume stands out with his indefatigable energy among a binder-carrying, money-crazed, and black-suited ensemble of soulless stock brokers in “All About the Green,” which is the absolute highlight among choreographer Anasha Milton’s many contributions.

Dailey is the idealistic love-to-hate financial shark, Glen, who talks on his oversized cellphone (it was the 80s, after all) and prefers Knicks tickets to celebrating his anniversary with Julia. In short order, nonetheless, Dailey shows off his outstanding versatility by transforming into an uproarious homeless drunkard in the liquid courage-fueled “Single.”

Miguel does the splits and sizzles as the unapologetic rocker Linda, who is in and out of Robbie’s life, making one last uninhibited plea, commanding everyone’s undivided attention, in the near show-stealer “Let Me Come Home.”

Stage veteran Dynell Leigh is the freshest and most progressive grandma around to Robbie, busting a move beyond her years (an underrated comedic peak of the musical), feting her 50th anniversary with her husband in style, and rapping with George (Thume). Leigh is, moreover, the supportive, albeit practically minded, mother to Tshudy’s Julia, among other characters.

Kendre Scott and Armie Jane are chameleons throughout the festivities, but where they really make their mark is as Vegas chapel officiants impersonating the 40th U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, and the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, respectively.

It should be noted that, excepting Parker, Tshudy, and Wolff, the remaining seven cast members act as onstage Swiss Army knives, shifting from one character and outfit to the next, cumulatively doing the work of what is usually assigned to a whopping company of 27. With so many moving parts happening concurrently, one would expect a slip-up or two, but not only are there none, the actors become a sum far greater than their constituent parts.

Unquestionably, Wisteria Theater’s The Wedding Singer is an adrenaline-charged ceremonial gambol down memory lane that, more so than just paying homage to the film and the age in which it transpires, feels fresh, euphoric, and extemporaneous, making the audience members feel like best men and maids of honor. Nuptials have never felt so riotously frenzied and full of life!

Cover image caption: The cast in Wisteria Theater Company’s production of The Wedding Singer in North Hollywood, CA. Photo by Brayden Hade

Wisteria Theater’s production of The Wedding Singer runs through Sunday, May 11th. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit wisteriatheater.com.