River City Community Players "Wedding Singer" review by stageaway

Fast paced dance, great sounds, beautiful people, WHAT A SHOW!

Rating: 5

The Wedding Singer

River City Community Players

The Wedding Singer, as presented my the River City Community Players
in the Leavenworth Performing Arts Center is a show not to be missed.

The theater itself is inviting and there's a feel of anticipatory excitement
as the tickets are taken, and the audience is seated.

Then comes the first notes of music and you know it: this is going to be
a great night of musical theater.  Director Eric Van Horn means to
deliver just that, and contrary of some of the more recent productions
taken on by others up there, he delivered on what he meant to give to
an audience.  He put together an incredibly talented cast, placed them
on one of the most versatile sets I've seen in years, and assembled a
terrific creative team to make this a show to remember.

Brian Shortess and Vanessa Harper are a great romantic duo in their
roles as Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan, not knowing themselves in the
earliest part of their relationship, that they were destined for each
other.  The audience does!  What a beautifully underplayed chemistry.
The audience gets to fall in love with them as they fall in love with each
other.   I hope I get to see them again in future productions.  They are a
joy.

Robbie's buddies and band mates, Sammy and George, played by Jeff
Adams and Nikcoma Mahkewa, add much comedy, romance, and fun to
the show.  They are talents to watch.

Holly, Sammy's former girlfriend, present annoyance, and future
relationship, does an impressive job, gently, (and sometimes not so
gently) pushing Julia towards the right man, and pushing Sammie's
buttons just enough.

Bradley. J. Thomas makes the role of Glen Guglia his very own.  As
Julia's husband-to-be, he is overbearing, arrogant, greedy, unfeeling,
and anything but the man for Julia to spend her life with.  He's the man
you really want to boo and hiss at.

Rosie, Robbie's kind but a bit unconventional Grandma, and Linda,
Robbie's unconventional former fiance, played by Tracy McClung and
Nicole Theno respectively,  seem like the good in Robbie's life on the
part of the former and the and the "good-God, run- for-your life from
her" character, on the part of the latter.  They are played perfectly.

The rest of the cast provides some great surprises; comic moments,
dumbfounded Dad, not-so-best Best Man, and bigger-than-life
personalities that you'll be all too familiar with.

Just to be honest, were there a couple of missed notes, or a delayed
line during some lively repartee?   Probably, but don't ask me when
they happened or who missed or delayed.   I can't remember.

The set is character in its own rite, and Van Horn played double duty to
design it for his cast.  With the bright and outlandish colors that harken
back to the 80's, and little mini-sets that suddenly appear to provide a
great place to perform the designated scene, there's plenty of room for
the action of this non-stop song-and-dance-a- thon.  The cast was
also definitely dressed for the parts.  Marianne Tennant and Nancy
Mazzia must have toured the second hand stores and flea markets of
the area to find some of the pastel tuxedos, wigs that looked like Tina
Turner hair for one of the guys, and bustier for one of the girls.

Lights and sound were terrific.  This show was one that not only could I
see every part of, but I wanted to.   I personally thanked one of the pit
band members for keeping the music and the voices balanced so that
the music didn't get played so loud that you couldn't hear the singing,
a usual problem with community theater.  Lauren Wilson kept a tight
rein on the balance of dynamics between the pit and the cast.

The choreography was razz-ma-tazz, from beginning to end.
Creative, imaginative, and thoughtful, considering a majority of the cast
were obviously not trained dancers, Kristen Seefeldt put together
movement that added to the story that the songs were telling
throughout the show. Haven't seen that in a long time up there either.
The cast looked like they were having a ball every time they started to
shake-a-leg.

The program credited the cast as the stage crew behind the scenes,
under the leadership of Teresa Hingula and Jesse Jacobs, as Stage
Manager and Assistant respectively.   With all the moving pieces I saw,
from bedroom, to dumpster, to airplane, they moved like a well oiled-
machine.

Eric Van Horn has done it again in Leavenworth.  He showed them what
can be accomplished on their small stage, and created a production
that is second to none up there.   The show told a story, entertained
your ears and your eyes, and flowed nearly non-stop.  (There was an
intermission after all.) The audience showed their appreciation for his
efforts with a well-deserved standing "O" on the night that I saw "The
Wedding Singer."

I was a little jealous of the great time the cast was having, and will not
hesitate to go see it one more time, at least.   It's like going to see a
Broadway show, without having to go all the way to New York.  It's
playing just one more Friday and Saturday, March 12th and 13th.  I
strongly recommend you make reservations early.   Wow!  What a
Show!!

read the review at KC Stage