After missing last year’s 24-Hour Musical, I made sure to see this year’s performance. I got in line in front of the SCC at around 5 p.m., three hours before the curtains rose, and still found myself only halfway through line. From what I’ve heard, this year’s show was much better organized than last year’s. Official tickets were being given out in line to ensure no one could sneak in (I was ticket number 124), and there were several monitors making sure the line remained orderly. This was a very good decision considering that a considerable number of people were turned away.
After a long wait, the audience was more than ready to pile into the SCC Theater, which quickly became packed with excited patrons. The atmosphere was also filled with apprehension for what the Hillel Theater Group and Tympanium Euphorium would have in store for us. We all knew that 24 hours was a short period of time in which to accomplish much of anything. How would their show do?
All in all, “The Wedding Singer”—or, as they called it, “The Wedding Tzinger”—was a fun play to watch, primarily because you could see how much fun the cast was having. While the musical is based on the 1998 Adam Sandler film of the same name, this performance incorporated a nice number of amusing Brandeis-related jokes that really impressed the crowd: BranPo was mentioned at one point and one particularly intoxicated character had to get BEMCo’d. One of the highlights of the show was Herbie Rosen ’12, who shone in his numerous bit parts throughout the show. One memorable scene involved him as a cellphone, leaving the audience rolling in hysterics.
All the actors rose to their parts admirably and showed considerable talent, especially considering they performed so well with only a few hours of sleep and little familiarity with the show. The occasional mistakes inherent in such a production really allowed the actors to show their improvisational skills. The show’s lead, Jason Dick ’14, particularly proved to be an adaptable performer.
Of course, music is key to any musical. The songs were all well-performed, but the audience’s enthusiastic applause occasionally drowned out the singers.
The set and lighting also impressed, especially considering the time restraints placed upon them. There was, however, one unnecessary bed onstage that seemed to be causing them more problems than it was worth. Every so often, the techies had to roll it on and off the stage, for no true purpose at all. Going along with this, one of the show’s few faults was the director’s seeming lack of sympathy for the three very overworked techies who received little help from their actors.
Overall, the show achieved what it set out to do, and that was to produce a fun, heartfelt, good time under challenging restrictions with generally impressive results.
