Actors say “The Wedding Singer” has a lot of heart

Surprised by the question about their favorite song from the 1980s, Shea Hager and Jackson Reagin named two songs by the band Tears for Fears.
“I choose ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World,'” said Hager, who plays Julia Sullivan in the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts’ production of “The Wedding Singer.”
Reagin, who plays Robbie Hart in the musical set in the 1980s, chose “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Hager explained that “The Wedding Singer” is “the story of a wedding singer who wants to marry his fiancée Linda, but unfortunately Linda doesn’t come to the wedding. So he starts a relationship with a waitress named Julia, and Julia is with the wrong man. She’s engaged to her fiancé Glen, but he’s just not good for her.”
The relationship between Robbie and Julia becomes more and more intense as the show progresses.
“It’s just a sweet and hilarious love story,” Hager said.
Reagin agreed, saying there was a lot of heart in it.
“From Robbie’s perspective, he’s been playing in a wedding band for a while with his two friends Sammy and George, and he wrote this song, and it becomes a huge hit. It’s called ‘It’s Your Wedding Day,’ and it’s also the opening number of the show. They start playing at weddings all over Jersey. I just picture Robbie as the guy who loves love so much. He’s very happy at the beginning of the show about the love he has with Linda, and he’s kind of over the moon about all these things. Then he gets jolted out of reality when she doesn’t show up for the wedding,” he said.
Robbie goes on a journey to find a way to cope, and in some ways learns to cope through Julia, Reagin explained. Unexpectedly, Robbie falls in love with Julia.
“It’s very funny. It has a lot of heart. It’s very sincere. It makes you laugh and then cry at the end when you see the relationship between Robby and Julia,” Reagin explained.
Hager and Reagin were born after the 1980s, but it’s nothing new for actors to play characters from the past, whether it’s the 1880s or the 1990s. However, appearing in a show set in the 1980s is a lot of fun for both of them.
“I think there are a lot of differences between Robbie’s music and Julia’s music, especially in the first act, but some of the characters are also inspired by real artists of the ’80s,” Hager said.
Linda is a character inspired by Pat Benatar, while Holly – Julia’s best friend – is inspired by Madonna. “So you can definitely hear and see that in her songs and in her look,” Hager said, while Robbie’s music is more rock ‘n’ roll.
“I don’t think ’80s music is cheesy. I guess when we look back now, we almost see it as cheesy, but I would say it’s pretty over the top, totally over the top. And it fits this story so well because this story doesn’t take place in a world of whimsy and all that stuff, but because there’s all this stuff, especially for Robbie, that’s kind of over the top and borders on that, and I think the songs reflect that really well, the way the story goes, with that kind of total over the topness and all that stuff,” Reagin said.
Hager said she had a lot of fun filming “A Wedding to Fall in Love” and going back to that time.
“It’s a lot of fun to rediscover things that are very commonplace in our lives,” Reagin said, noting that the show has lines about talking on a car phone and people wondering what a CD player is. “So it’s fun to go back and rediscover all of that in the show.”
At the time of the interview on Tuesday, they had not yet tried on the costumes, but Reagin said he had walked through the dressing room and seen the costumes and wigs.
“It’s a lot of fun to see the styles of that era, and it’s going to be exciting to see how that affects our characters and the progression of the story,” he said. “Lots of patterns. Bold colors. Big crazy wigs. It’s great.”
As for his favorite songs in the musical, Hager had a fondness for the ballad duet in the second act entitled “If I Told You.”
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “You can kind of step back from the crazy ’80s rock of the whole show, and it kind of grounds the whole thing. It’s really beautiful.”
With the song “Casualty of Love,” Reagin took the “stark opposite” and said it was not only his favorite song, but also his favorite scene.
“It’s just after Robbie’s heartbroken, and in the scene he’s trying to get back on the horse and play at this wedding even though he’s been heartbroken. Everything goes wrong and he’s with a group of very interesting people who have had their hearts broken or are part of this lonely hearts club, and so it’s this very over-the-top community of freaks that come together in this song. It’s very over-the-top. There’s a big fight at the end. It’s so much fun,” he said.
The musical is based on the 1998 film of the same name starring Adam Sandler as Robbie and Drew Barrymore as Julia, but the actors feel no pressure in portraying their roles in the stage version.
“Julia is such a sweetheart and just wants to see the best in people and help them, but she’s also hilarious. She’s a goofball and that’s really funny,” Hager said. “But I think that – you can see that sweet Drew Barrymore in there – it’s fun to bring other aspects and fiery aspects to her character as well.”
Reagin said Sandler has such a great way of playing characters that it is so unique that it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
“This show is definitely a little bit different than the movie, and I think Robbie Hart is such a character that people can universally identify with, and a character that I can identify with, so it’s fun to find my own version of that that I think still resonates with people. Even if they know the movie, they know it’s a little bit different, but I think they still find the same foundation of the character, they still identify with her in the same way,” he said.
Hager is in her third season with the Wagon Wheel and will complete her senior year at Western Michigan University in the fall.
“I’ve found that this place has been a great tool for me more than anything in my educational journey. I learn so much here and meet the best people ever. And I just love coming back here. (Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels) always brings such a great group of people and it’s so much fun to be in the rehearsal room. It’s just a great place to try new things and just have fun. Every show you can do here is so different, you can dance, you can sing, next thing we know we’ve got a play. You can really do anything and I leave every summer having grown so much. I love it here,” she said.
Reagin, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music, is enjoying his first summer performing at the Wagon Wheel.
“I’ve never done a show in the circle before, so this is like a brand new opportunity. I’ve always heard – people from my school have worked here before and talked about the fast pace, the double duty you have when you’re putting on the shows. So it’s always been a place I’ve really wanted to audition for, and this season was so much fun that I had to come audition,” he said. “It was super fun. I got to dance a lot and now I get to just be a goofball. Later in the play I’m a serious British colonel and all that stuff. You learn how to get stuff on stage really quickly, which is a very important skill because sometimes you get a 29-hour reading.”
Both Hager and Reagin will be appearing in all of the Wagon Wheel’s shows this season.
“The Wedding Singer” runs July 4-13 at the Wagon Wheel. Tickets can be purchased at the box office at 2515 E. Center St., Warsaw, by phone at 574-267-8041 or 866-823-2618, or online at wagonwheelcenter.org.
“This show definitely has something for everyone. It’s hilarious. Every line is a joke or something that leads to a joke, but there’s also so much heart in it,” Hager said.
Reagin said: “It really is a story where you root for Robbie and Julia and all the characters and you just cheer them on. There are so many stories that you just root for everyone and you connect with everyone. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. There’s something for everyone. It’s such a heartwarming story.”