The Wedding Singer to Play Al Hirschfeld Theatre Spring 2006, Spanger Joins Cast
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 15, 2005
The Wedding Singer has been announced for the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, with previews to begin on March 30, 2006 and opening night to be April 27, 2006. The show kicks off with a world premiere in Seattle, with performances beginning on January 31, 2006 and continuing through February 19, 2006. Along with booking a theatre, the show has now completed its casting with Amy Spanger (Kiss Me, Kate revival, tick, tick...BOOM!) joining the cast as Holly, Julia's Madonna-wannabe cousin and best friend.
Singer, comedian and star of Comedy Central Stephen Lynch (stephenlynch.com) will star as Robbie Hart opposite two-time Tony Award nominee Laura Benanti (Nine, Swing!, Into the Woods, laurabenanti.com) who stars as his love interest Julia. Rita Gardner (the original cast of The Fantasticks) is the wise and lovable grandmother Rosie and Richard Blake (Hairspray, Aida) plays Julia's fiancé Glen Gulia. Kevin Cahoon (The Lion King) is the Boy-George-ish band member George and Felicia Finley (Aida) is the ex-fiancée Linda. Matthew Saldivar plays Robbie¹s best friend Sammy.
Ensemble cast include: Adinah Alexander, Matt Allen, Tracee Beazer, Cara Cooper, Ashley Amber Haase, Nicolette Hart, Angelique Ilo, David Josefsberg, Peter Kapetan, Kevin Kern, Spencer Liff, J. Elaine Marcos, Michael McGurk, Christina Sivrich, Matthew Stocke Eric Lajuan Summers and Tina Maddigan as the standby for Julia.
THE WEDDING SINGER is based upon the wildly popular New Line Cinema film, which opened in 1998. Like the movie, the musical is set in 1985 and rock-star wannabe Robbie Hart is New Jersey¹s favorite wedding singer. He¹s the life of the party‹until his own fiancée leaves him at the altar. Shot through the heart, Robbie makes every wedding as disastrous as his own. Enter Julia, a sweet-tempered waitress who wins his affection. The only trouble isŠ Julia is about to be married to a Wall Street shark. Unless Robbie can pull off the performance of the decade, the girl of his dreams will be gone forever. With a brand new score that pays loving homage to the pop songs of the Œ80s, The Wedding Singer takes us back to a time when hair was big, greed was good, collars were up and a wedding singer just might be the coolest guy in the room.
The music is by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin and book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy. John Rando (Urinetown) will direct this new musical. Rob Ashford is the choreographer, Scott Pask is the scenic designer, Gregory Gale is the costume designer, Brian MacDevitt is the lighting designer, Peter Hylenski is the sound designer and David Brian Brown and Joe Dulude will design the hair and make-up respectively. Orchestrations are by Irwin Fisch with dance arrangements by David Chase. THE WEDDING SINGER will be conducted by James Sampliner.
THE WEDDING SINGER is from the producers of HAIRSPRAY, led by Margo Lion, New Line Cinema and The 5th Avenue Theatre. Additional producers include: The Araca Group, Douglas Meyer, James D. Stern, Roy Furman, Rick Steiner, Jam Theatricals, Michael Gill, Dr. Lawrence Horowitz and Jujamcyn Theatres.
Tickets to THE WEDDING SINGER are on sale now and priced from $19 to $71. Tickets are available over the phone through Ticketmaster at 206-292-ARTS (2787), online at www.ticketmaster.com
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