Yesterday morning as my wife and I readied for work I told her, "I really want to like THE WEDDING SINGER." With much trepidation I entered the half-full Murat theatre thinking, "Here we go, another Networks tour. Just like that MISSED SIGH-GONE piece o' pooh… Please let this be good." With the almost-good-as-a-college-production quality DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS offering before this one, I was concerned to say the least. Remember, these are non-union (AEA) shows thus far (3 of the 5 in the season, sadly.)

After noticing the scarcity of the audience, the next thing we were hit with was the dance of 4 simultaneous mirror balls turning the house of the theatre in to something akin to the "Enchantment Under The Sea Dance." Get used to those 1980's references this show is full of 'em. And boy, are they totally wicked!

I have to say that even with all my marks against them… this show is really quite enjoyable . The in jokes from the 1998 Adam Sandler film on which it was based are all there. George, the Boy George wannbe keyboard player, (John Jacob Lee) stealing every scene he's in is a total delight. The story line from the movie is all in tact - Boy and girl both engaged meet at a wedding; both get un-engaged; both, too goofy to let the other know they are in love… Wanna guess the end? This is just an adorable show. The play itself beats the pants off SCOUNDRELS which had no heart. And this young cast actually works in this case when the youth of the cast did not for SCOUNDRELS.

Merrit David James in the driver's seat of the band as Robbie Hart does not impersonate Sandler in the least even when singing the Sandler composed tunes from the film like "Somebody Kill Me Please". A killer set of pipes and strong acting chops make this young man someone to keep an eye out for in the future. His love interest Julia, portrayed by Drew Barrymore in the film was a surprise treat. Surprise treat because we got 2! The show started and Erin Elizabeth Coors was playing the role. Coors started singing her first tune and "crack"… "croak"…oops. There seemed to be a switch later in the act but, I could not really tell. An announcement was made at intermission that Coors was being replaced by Andrea Andert midstream. And it was seamless, they could have been sisters. This made a fairly lame joke at the top of act 2 about a "twin" pretty funny… though my wife and I were the singular belly laughers. My apologies to Coors who has obviously picked up the Indianapolis epizootic and will take it with her as a souvenir. My wishes to the rest of the cast for good health… wash 'yo hands! Andert, however was charming, with a beautiful voice. I am sure that as talented as she is as the cover Coors in good health is just as.

I rushed home to write this to encourage you to head to the Murat to check the last 3 performances in town.