The Wedding Singer | Curve Theatre, Leicester

The Wedding Singer (UK Tour) 
Curve Theatre, Leicester 

★★★★

The Wedding Singer UK Tour is a party you will be desperate to get an invite to this year! We're being taken back to the year 1985, the year dominated by Madonna, Back to the Future, Super Mario Bros, The Goonies in this stage adaption of the smash hit 1998 film, The Wedding Singer.

The film that starred Drew Barrymore alongside Adam Sandler is a huge hit so it was no surprise when it was announced to become a hit musical in a 2017 UK Tour. With such a strong cast of professional individuals, you can hope to expect a great night at the theatre with this latest film to stage production.

Composer Matthew Sklar has created a retro feel to the pop score that feels nostalgic and intentional but works well in creating 1980s sounds from the likes of Boy George, Billy Idol and Tina Turner who are so iconic from that era. It naturally feeds itself into a musical with bags of comedy, with Chad Beguelin joining the original screenwriter Tim Herlihy to adapt it's plot onto stage.

Curve Theatre's very own associate artist, choreographer Nick Winston was again showcasing his natural flare and ability to bring a stage production to live through his distinctive choreographic style. The choreography was absolute flawless throughout and incorporated the ensemble cast to show off their individual style within the structure too which I thought was really special.

Jon Robyns, who I saw perform in Sister Act last year leads the cast as the title character The Wedding Singer, Robbie Hart. He shows an equal measure of fun and vulnerability in his character, having to entertain happy couples who are celebrating their wedding day when he isn't so lucky in finding the one he'll marry. Jon shows that he is indeed a powerful performer of singing, acting and dancing and performs really well.

He is well partnered with leading lady, Cassie Compton as the woman he falls in love with in the production. Cassie, a actress and singer/songwriter is definitely establishing herself as a reliable and strong performer within the theatre world. I would definitely like to see her in more productions in the future.

2006 X-Factor runner up Ray Quinn showed his cocky, confident character as a love rat as Glen Guglia. He was flawless in performing the choreography, demonstrating the ability he had to be an all rounded strong performer. Roxanne Pallett also demonstrated her strong all rounded ability as a performer undertaking the role as Holly, her vocals really surprised me having only seen her previously done more acting in the past. 

Two performances that definitely stood out to me were from Samuel Holmes as George, who had well immersed himself into a Boy George like character that was so likeable and fun to watch. I also loved Ruth Madoc as Rosie who demonstrated her experience empowers her to become a really talented and enjoyable performer to watch.

There was a great use of video projections with some added extras to bring the stage to life that made it look really effective, as well as work well within a touring production set. All of the creative team had clearly worked really hard to bring to life an exciting new production from it's initial foundation and ideas. I also loved how embedded the 80s was within the plot, making it for a perfect night out for people who lived through or loved the era just as much as I do.

Party like it's 1985 and enjoy The Wedding Singer UK Tour across the county at various venues until October 2017.

Photos: Darren Bell

*I was gifted this ticket in exchange for a review, but all words and opinions are my own.