Wedding Singer spotlight videos on BWW

[NDR]

Posted: 8/25/09 at 9:00am

Does anyone else find it weird that there are videos of the national tour of The Wedding Singer on BWW, but no listing for a national tour under the "Tours" section of the website?
A cursory search yielded only information on the NETworks incarnation of the tour with the last performance dates listed as Atlantic City back in August of 2008.
Not that I am dying to see the show, but I think it's terrible promotion to run videos without any direct connection to the actual production.

[smodel11]

Posted: 8/25/09 at 10:10am

It's a Prather Entertainment Group tour, very much in the vein of last year's Footloose. It started at the Broadway Palm in Fort Myers, Fl, and is currently playing the Dutch Apple in Lancaster, Pa before hitting the road for a year. If you go to www.pratherentertainmentgroup.com, you can find more information.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 12:11am

Since when does Prathers do Equity shows?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 12:38am

My guess would be it that it's Non-Equity, but that's just a stab in the dark.

I'm surprised there is much demand for this show to tour.

[Parks]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 2:14am

I had no idea there even was a WS tour going on until I saw those videos on the right... has anyone seen it? My guess is that it's one of those mostly one-night-stops tours?

[born2bebroadway]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 3:14am

It is a non-equity tour. And yes, most of its stops are one night.

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 9:27am

If it's non-eq, why do a couple of the folks in the video show off their equity cards?

(Even the screen shot of the latest video shows a guy holding his)

Updated On: 8/29/09 at 09:27 AM

[born2bebroadway]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 2:09pm

They just received their equity cards about a week ago, but they're still going to tour

[sgv123]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 2:47pm

I saw the show earlier this month. I also saw the show on Broadway and twice during the 1st tour. From the previous 2 productions, this one is quite different. The songs are there, but there are several line changes (in dialogue and song.) Some of the costumes are different along with the wigs( which are quite bad). The set is also different at times...no car,big house set peice, "Saturday Night" set ect. The choreography is completely different. The cast as whole was great though with the exception of 1 or 2 people. The ensemble was excellent. I would say see it if you get the chance.

[Dolly_Levi]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 4:07pm

I was a little surprised BWW was covering this and posting all those vids.

[EvanK]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 8:02pm

did the original tour shut down?!?!

[Tag]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 8:37pm

You know it's non-Equity when the lead is doing all her own wardrobe presets!

[born2bebroadway]

Posted: 8/29/09 at 11:44pm

The set is actually the broadway set, they just cant fit some of the pieces on the Dutch Apple stage, but they're going back when they actually go on tour.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/30/09 at 2:34pm

Odds are they will be cutting various set pieces in every venue. Very few non-Eq tours are able to fit their entire set into most venues due to either space or time constrictions. The tour that I did some years ago had about five different versions of the physical production that we used, based on the size of the venue. The worst was the theatre in Waco, TX, where we were pretty much down to four set pieces, our show drop, our cyc, and two of the set pieces that would have made the show virtually impossible to do without. That was the smallest version we did, and if I remember correctly, the only place we had to do it that reduced.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/30/09 at 2:37pm

^^ I think 'The Producers' also had a hellish time with their set in Waco as well.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/30/09 at 2:42pm

Pretty much everyone does. The stage is incredibly tiny and there is virtually no wing space to speak of.

Unfortunately that theatre likes to book the NETworks tours, at least back when I was working for them. It became the black cloud of death knowing that stop was coming up soon in the couple of weeks leading up to it. Luckily, since you rarely have a NETworks tech staff that is entirely new to the company you always have at least one person on your crew who has been there before and knows how to prepare for it.

Our SM for my tour had been the ASM on Ragtime the year before that. As I remember, she said the only set piece they bothered bringing in then was the car, and even then the audience got a pretty full view of the crew prepping it in the wings for each entrance, since it was pretty much hanging halfway out on stage during the show!

[singtopher]

Posted: 8/30/09 at 3:05pm

I can attest to the horrors of the Waco theatre. Tiny stage, tiny dressing rooms, but otherwise a beautiful theatre and a great local crew.

[logan0215]

Posted: 9/1/09 at 1:03am

I'm trying so hard not to, but I'm totally boy-crushing on Kyle Kleiboeker.

I didn't watch the first 10 videos they posted, but he officially had me when he broke out the "Electric Youth" choreography...

[TMedeiros17]

Posted: 9/1/09 at 5:15am

I'm pondering over whether this tour will be worth going to see when it comes an hour away from me for a night...hmmm

[born2bebroadway]

Posted: 9/1/09 at 7:32pm

I would very much recommend going to see the tour. And Kyle Kleiboker is amazing! He's really funny and he's a great guy!

[logan0215]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 12:17pm

Watched a couple of the other videos, he's adorable.

[SNLMedia]

Posted: 9/2/09 at 12:45pm

I'm crushing on Kyle too. What a cutie! I like how the actor playing George always says "Oh, I didn't see you there!"

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 9/4/09 at 12:01pm

I find it so strange when touring shows do stops for 1 night in America. The shortest runs our tours have in the UK are a week in each venue, even the dirt cheap tours