Review: THE WEDDING SINGER at The Academy Players Of Rhode Island

The Academy Players Of Rhode Island’s musical production of ‘The Wedding Singer’ by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin was a blast from the past and an absolute joy to watch from start to finish. From the high paced energy to the stunning choreo to the sharp comedic timing, this production had the audience laughing and cheering all night long.

Anybody that is looking for a journey back to 1985 should look no further than this production. With perfectly time accurate costumes, hairstyles, and even a giant cellphone or two, the audience gets transported back in time from the very opening number. Of course inspired by the classic 1998 Adam Sandler film, this 2006 two act musical gives its own take on the known comedic and romantic story with a plethora of electric and fun musical numbers, all dipped into the exact ‘80s vibes that one would be hoping for from this production.

Directed by both Adam & Chelsea Morgan, this show was executed brilliantly with a sizable cast that utilized the entire space at all times. This production contained a tremendous and large ensemble, who with excellent direction, felt just as prominent and included in every scene as the main cast of characters. At any moment, an audience member could look anywhere on the stage and find something fun to laugh or smile at. And when a musical number began, it was pure spectacle because of the precise and beautiful choreo alone with everybody firing off on all cylinders. The awesome choreography in this production can be credited to director Chelsea Morgan as well.

For those not familiar with the story of ‘The Wedding Singer’, we follow the romantic journey of a wedding singer by the name of Robbie Hart (Brenner Campos) who early on in the musical is left at the altar of his own wedding by the love of his life Linda (Christina Campos). This incident causes Robbie to spiral and change his whole perception of love and weddings in general; causing his career as a wedding singer to plummet.

On the other side of things, there is a waitress named Julia Sullivan (Sammy Schleifer), who early on in the production becomes engaged to a cocky and insufferable rich broker named Glen Guglia (Thomas Edwards). Julia and Robbie form quite a friendship as he helps her plan for the upcoming wedding, and it wouldn’t be a musical without the two leads slowly falling in love in the process.

By Julia’s side is her cousin Holly (Brianna Callahan) who takes her own swing at dating Robbie, which ultimately fails as his true feelings were always elsewhere. And in Robbie’s corner are his bandmates George (Milo Coste) and Sammy (Jaydon Geyer), who were a hilarious part of this production. Notably, Sammy being forced to run constantly back and forth to the point where he is on the floor using his inhaler as George worryingly watched on was a bit that had me laughing out loud.

This production was jam packed with fun musical numbers that were not only visually stunning, but sounded beautiful as well with an excellent mix of talented voices onstage and an amazing live orchestra offstage. Stand out numbers included “It’s Your Wedding Day” (an opening number that immediately had me hooked), “Casualty Of Love”, “Saturday Night in the City” (the closing number of Act One), and then a reprise of “It’s Your Wedding Day” for the exciting finale. And a stand alone shout out to a dynamite auto tuned rap number by George and Robbie’s Grandmother (Gabbie Dworkin). Talk about a number that had the entire audience in stitches. 

Brenner Campos’ leading performance in this show was near perfection. An extremely gifted actor who captured the real emotions of this character while consistently keeping it humorous and fun. With a tremendous voice and excellent comedic timing, Campos captured the essence of what it means to be a leading man. Any number sung between Robbie and Julia captured the true love between these characters as Sammy Schleifer showcased truly impressive vocals in this production. 

Callahan’s performance as Holly was stellar as well, tearing the house down in the number mentioned above, “Saturday Night”. And yet another love interest in this production, Linda, played voraciously by Christina Campos delivered an extremely impressive performance in a very limited role. Linda has two songs in this production and that is about all we see from her, but both of those songs had the audience captivated, and particularly hysterical delivery when she left Robbie at the altar. 

There were two show stealing performances that deserve recognition both by Edwards as Glen as well as Dworkin as the Grandmother. Edwards couldn’t have made this character more unlikeable in the best way. Perfect line delivery and the entire audience could see him get completely immersed in this character and showcased his comedic abilities perfectly in “All About The Green”. And there was Dworkin who capitalized on every moment every single time she stepped on stage. It was almost a given that if she had a line, it was going to make the audience laugh. Tremendous. 

This production included a phenomenal ensemble, but two men who played several roles and found ways to make memorable moments out of any opportunity were Anthony Lautieri and Noah Austin. Countless different costumes, leaf blowers, and wigs.

This cast and orchestra was led by Music Director Raymond Santos to an immense success. Hats off to Santos for his efforts in this show as each song displayed the successes of his work, and assisted by an orchestra that was the backbone of this show and played the biggest role in taking the audience back in time.