The Wedding Singer!

At New Year's Eve, I saw The Wedding Singer with my Mum, and it was a great experience on very many levels!!

This was originally a movie, as some of you may know, and was later adapted for the stage on Broadway in America. This production by Värmlandsoperan is the first in Europe, so that was very special of course. But the best part was that they hadn't made it "simple" and just translated the american music into Swedish, they had in fact transformed it so that it applied to Sweden! The setting, the characters, the comments, the language, everything was typically Swedish, instead of being some kind of "americanized Swedish", which is quite common these days. The musical has a clear setting in the 1980's, and since I grew up during the 1980s and the 1990s this felt very special to me - and it was made even better by the fact that it didn't mirror the 80's in America, but in fact the 80's here in Sweden!





I was thrilled to once again see Christer Nerfont perform, he is quickly becoming my favourite Swedish musical performer, but I can't help thinking that he doesn't quite get the credit he should, working at Värmlandsoperan! I have nothing against it, and I guess that's what he wants himself, but there are no doubts in my mind that he would be a huge success in the "bigger" Swedish musical productions in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, and also on the stage in London's West End and on Broadway! His voice is fantastic and his stage prescence outstanding!! I have seen him a few times now - I saw him as Robert in Kristina From Duvemåla, where he impressed me a lot, he did a musical concert with Karlstad University's female choir, "Söt Likör", which was wonderful, I saw him with his wife Cecilie in a Musical Highlights Concert in 2006, and now in The Wedding Singer - and he keeps impressing me!
A shame he usually works in Karlstad, I'd love to see him somewhere a little closer to home! :)
Apart from Christer, I was very impressed by Nina Lundseie, who played the femmale lead and did a fantastic job of it!!





The musical was really great, a true romantic comedy and even though I usually don't like them that much, this one was absolutely terrific!! (I think it's the romantic comedy movies I don't like, but give me a live performance on stage, and I fall completely! *lol*)
The usual twists and turns, the usual anxiety when it seems like the beautiful young girl will be stuck with the "bad man", and the usual relief and little tear in the corner of your eye at the end when the hero and princess end up together! *big smile* I enjoyed the music a lot, which was very 80's, and lots of cool references!
A lot of dancing as well, which in my experience isn't that common in musicals these days, so that was great to see - lots of talented dancers on stage at the same time!





New Year's Eve was the last performance, although nothing special happened to "celebrate" (aparently, there had been a real wedding on stage on the premiere - totally cool!!), and I have to say I wish it had played longer, because then I maybe had been able to see it once more!

The next production will be Candide during spring, but I don't know wether I'll be able to see it, it all depends on wether I'll be going to Karlstad, and how much time I get! *fingers crossed*

Overall, I strongly recommend The Wedding Singer if it will be put into production on other places, and all I can say to you all (mostly those of you in Sweden) - if you get a chance to see Christer Nerfont, don't miss him! :)

När det är din bröllopsdag
Hör på mej så lovar jag
Min musik slår an en
Ton av kärlek
När det är din bröllopsdag
Lyssna till din hjärtas slag

Sången inom dej
För kärlek är
Ja, kärlek är musik