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GALLERY: Curtains rise for St. Mary’s ‘The Wedding Singer’

May 7, 2015 | 4:43 PM

After months of preparation the curtain is rising on the E.A. Rawlinson Centre stage as Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan’s love story comes to life.

For a link to the gallery, click here. 

Many know The Wedding Singer through the interpretation of actor Adam Sandler and actress Drew Barrymore—but the St. Mary High School cast says they wanted to do it a little different.

“That was the one big dilemma—that we didn’t want people getting the idea that I would be another Adam Sandler because Adam Sandler has his own gimmicks that are funny to other people that I just can’t pull off,” said Everett Havet, who plays Robbie Hart in the production.

“I can be so much more real with Robbie as an emotional quality rather than a funny person like Adam Sandler was with his Robert, but just watching Robbie going through all of these things … it’s kind of amazing just falling in love so to speak.”

Sitting in the E.A. Rawlinson Centre theatre seats looking at the stage across from him, Havet said there’s a lot he’s enjoyed about being a part of the show.

The Grade 11 student said he felt like putting himself out there this year by going for the lead role.

 “The whole entire thing is just one big highlight. Getting the part was so exciting, I just didn’t imagine it; it caught me by surprise. Now rehearsing it all the time is just so much fun.  Now it’s coming up it’s kind of a little scary, but I can’t wait,” said Havet.

Some of the hurdles of the performance included the dance moves and vocals even though he’s been singing “forever,” he said.

“Robbie has a very rough quality to his voice and he likes to play around with really, really high notes,” he said with a chuckle.

Robbie Hart’s love interest, Julia Sullivan, is played by Grade 11 student Elizabeth Chamberlain.  She said she can relate to Julia’s character in a lot of ways.

“When I got this character … it was very surprising a lot of things that she says, I just would normally say, so it’s actually quite easy to learn my lines,” Chamberlain said.  “I find I don’t have to act a lot of the time when I’m up there I just have to be myself.”

Chamberlain reiterated that her performance won’t be like Drew Barrymore’s.

“Julia is a character not an actor and the very essence of her, everybody will play differently,” she said.

As the first performance approaches Wednesday night, Chamberlain said she’s not nervous, she’s excited.

The Wedding Singer started just after Christmas break with auditions.  Jason Van Otterloo is the director, technical director, set and lighting designer, a.k.a. “the man of many hats.”

The hardest part has been bringing together the three different groups together: technicians, band, and the cast, he said.

“They work sort of separately, independently and the hardest part is always putting them together at the end, taking their small worlds and making it a very big world,” Otterloo said.

In addition, it’s been an adjustment from rehearsing at the high school to moving it to the big stage.

After eight years of performances, Otterloo said The Wedding Singer is a little more modern than the past productions he’s been involved in.

“Doing The Wedding Singer brings a little more with-it-ness,” he said. “And, yeah, it’s a little bit more risqué but I think every now and again it’s good to something like that.”

He hopes the audience takes away the thought that love stories “are awesome.”

“The grandma says it best—it’s never too late for love.”

The show runs Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84