Surprised with the question of what is their favorite song from the 1980s, Shea Hager and Jackson Reagin named two songs from the band Tears for Fears.
“I’m going to go with ‘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, went with Tears for Fears’ “Head Over Heels.”
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Hager explained that “The Wedding Singer” is “a story about a wedding singer, who’s about to get married to his fiancee Linda, but, unfortunately, Linda doesn’t come to the wedding. So he forms this relationship with this catering waitress named Julia, and Julia, she’s with the wrong guy. She got engaged to her fiance Glen, but he’s just not good for her.”
Robbie and Julia have a relationship that grows throughout the show.
“It’s just a sweet love story and it’s hilarious,” Hager said.
Reagin agreed, saying it’s got a lot of heart.
“From Robbie’s point of view, he’s been playing in a wedding band with his two friends, Sammy and George, for a while, and he wrote this song and it blows up. It’s called ‘It’s Your Wedding Day,’ which is the opening number of the show, too. They start playing weddings all over Jersey. I just think of Robbie as the guy who loves love so much. He’s very happy with the love he has with Linda at the start of the show, and he’s sort of overjoyed about all that kind of stuff. Then he gets his reality shaken when she doesn’t show up to the wedding,” he said.
Robbie goes on a journey of finding a way to cope with that, and, in a way, learns to deal with that through Julia, Reagin explained. Unexpectedly, Robbie falls for Julia.
“It’s very hilarious. It’s got a lot of heart. It’s very sincere. It’s one that will make you laugh, and then at the end make you cry with the relationship that Robby and Julia form,” Reagin stated.
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 1990s. Performing in a show set in the 1980s, though, is a lot of fun for both of them.
“I think there’s kind of - especially in the first act - there’s a lot of differences in Robbie’s music and Julia’s music, but also some of the characters are inspired by like real ‘80s artists,” 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 that and see that in their songs and in their looks,” Hager said, while Robbie’s music is more rock ‘n’ roll.
“I think ’80s music, it’s not like cheesy. I guess now looking back we kind of almost see it as cheesy, but it’s very like over-the-top all-in, I would say. And it goes along so well with this story because this story isn’t living in this world of whimsy and all this kind of stuff, but there’s all this stuff, especially for Robbie, that’s sort of over-the-time bordering that, so I think the songs reflect that really well with how the story goes, with this sort of all-in, over-the-topness, all that kind of stuff,” Reagin said.
Hager said she’s had a lot of fun doing “The Wedding Singer” and stepping back into that time period.
“It’s very fun to rediscover things that are very common in our lifetime,” Reagin said, noting that there’s lines in the show about calling from a car mobile phone and people wondering what a CD player is. “So it’s fun to go back and rediscover all this in the show.”
As of the interview Tuesday, they hadn’t tried on costumes yet, but Reagin said he had walked through the dressing room and saw the costumes and wigs.
“It’s a lot of fun to see the styles of that time, and it’s going to be fun to see how that impacts our characters and how the story goes,” he said. “Lot of patterns. Flashing colors. Big crazy wigs. It’s awesome.”
As for favorite songs in the musical, Hager was partial to the ballad duet in the second act titled “If I Told You.”
“That one is so beautiful,” she said. “You get to kind of take a step back from like the crazy ‘80s rock of the whole show, and it kind of grounds it. It’s really beautiful.”
Reagin went “polar opposite” with the song “Casualty of Love,” saying it’s not only his favorite song but also favorite scene.
“It’s freshly after Robbie has had his heart broken, and the scene in it is him trying to get back on the horse and play at this wedding, even though he’s had his heart broken. Everything goes awry and he’s with a group of very interesting individuals who all have had their hearts broken or are part of this lonely hearts club, and so it’s that very over-the-top community of freaks that get together in this song. It’s very over the top. There’s a big fight at the end of it. It’s so much fun,” he said.
The musical is based on the 1998 movie of the same name starring Adam Sandler as Robbie and Drew Barrymore as Julia, but the actors aren’t feeling any pressure playing the roles in the stage version.
“Julia is such a sweetheart and wants to just see the best in people and help people, but she’s also hilarious. She’s a dork, and it’s really funny,” Hager said. “But I think that - you can see that Drew Barrymore sweetheart in there - but 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 and is so unique that it allows for a lot of interpretation.
“This show is definitely a little different than the movie, and I think that Robbie Hart is such a character that is sort of, people can connect to universally, and a character that I can connect to, so it’s fun to kind of find my own take on it, which I think still resonates with people. Even if they know the movie, they know it’s a little different, but I think they still find the same base of the character, they still connect with it in the same way,” he said.
Hager is in her third season at the Wagon Wheel and will be a senior this fall at Western Michigan University.
“I have found that this place has been a great, first of all, tool for me on my educational journey. I learn so much when I’m here and I meet the best people ever. And, I just love coming back here. (Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels) always brings in such a great group of people, and being in the rehearsal room is so fun. It’s just a great space to try new things and just to have fun. Each show that you get to do here is so different, so you get to dance, you get to sing, we’ve got a play coming up next. You really get to do it all, and I just come out of each summer having grown so much. I love it here,” she said.
Reagin, a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music, is experiencing his first summer performing at the Wagon Wheel.
“I’ve never done a show in the round before, so it’s 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 put the shows up. So it’s always been a place I’ve been super interested in auditioning for, and this was such a fun season to do that I had to come audition for it,” he said. “It’s been super fun. I’ve gotten to dance a lot, and now I get to just kind of be a goofball. Later, in the play, I’m a serious British colonel and all this kind of stuff. It teaches you how to put stuff up really fast, which is a very important skill because sometimes you get a 29-hour reading.”
Both Hager and Reagin are in all the shows at the Wagon Wheel this season.
“The Wedding Singer” is at the Wagon Wheel July 4-13. Tickets may 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 leading up to a joke, but it also has so much heart in it,” Hager said.
Reagin stated, “It’s a really story where you buy in to Robbie and Julia and all the characters and just root for them. There’s so many stories that go on, you just find yourself rooting for everyone and connecting to everyone. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry. It has something for everyone. It’s such a heart-warming story.”