The Wedding Singer is a cheery, feather-light musical that offers a tuneful evening of undemanding entertainment. Featuring twenty songs, many of them skilful pastiches of 1980s pop, it is certainly not lacking in music and dance.  Two of the numbers come from the original 1998 rom-com movie, while the music for eighteen new songs has been penned by Matthew Skylar, with lyrics by Chad Beguelin. The songs are fine, but they come so thick and fast that they leave no time for any lengthy passages of dialogue, so it is a tribute to this show’s multi-talented cast that they succeed in creating distinctive personalities from relatively little material.

Jon Robyns grabs the lead role of Robbie Hart with both hands and is the focus of attention from the word go.  He is particularly good at conveying the cynicism and self-pity of a wedding singer who must face the cruel irony of having been jilted at his own nuptials. His despairing Somebody Kill Me is a tragi-comic highlight of Act One. He is persuaded to stop wallowing in his sorrows by good-natured waitress Julia, who is betrothed to dodgy city slicker Glen Gulia.  There is never the slightest doubt that Julia is in fact destined to wed Robbie, for this is not a show that keeps the audience guessing.  Cassie Compton brings just the right balance of sweetness and strength to the part.  This is seen to great effect in her touching rendition of Come Out Of The Dumpster, where she attempts to persuade the despairing Robbie to climb out of the skip into which he has thrown himself. It’s fundamentally a silly scene, but she creates real poignancy and tenderness here. This song-packed show offers few opportunities for nuanced character development, but Robyns and Compton are very watchable, and they bring great charm to their scenes together. In contrast to Robbie and Julia’s gentle hesitancy, X Factor star Ray Quinn brings a brash confidence to the role of shyster Glen Gulia. This versatile singer and actor takes centre stage in the opening of Act Two with a noisy, dollar-waving celebration of greed-is-good materialism, All About The Green.

There are fine performances in all the other roles, not least from Ruth Madoc, who combines kindly warmth with merry naughtiness as Robbie’s grandma, but who is perhaps under-used; I would have liked more of Grandma Rosie.  Real raunchiness comes from Tara Verloop as the vampish Linda, who wishes she could win Robbie back despite having left him stranded at the altar. The scene where she attempts to seduce the hapless Robbie is less than subtle, but certainly not lacking in oomph. Roxanne Pallett is amusing as Julia’s hedonistic friend Holly, a girl who cheerfully acknowledges that chastity is not her forte. Ashley Emerson and Samuel Holmes are also excellent as Robbie’s long-suffering bandmates.

At times the music drowns out some of the lyrics, but generally music director George Dyer and his seven-piece band do a great job.  The songs themselves are more than adequate, if often rather generic in style.  The big ballad If I told You is perhaps the most memorable, but I also enjoyed Grow Old With You, which brings the show to a touching conclusion.  The Wedding Singer is probably not destined to become a ‘classic’ musical, but this production is blessed with an excellent cast who sing, dance and act their socks off.  The plot is predictable and lightweight, but the performances are substantial. Though it may not quite live up to its ‘hilarious’ billing, director and choreographer Nick Winston has created an enjoyable show.   ★★★☆☆   Mike Whitton   15^th March 2017