Someone forgot to tell the wedding party that none of the guests at this ceremony and reception would be friends or relatives, but rather ticketholders looking for laughs at an interactive mock matrimonial called "Tony n' Tina's Wedding," a free-wheeling evening originally created by Artificial Intelligence, a New York improvisational troupe, and now being staged at Scarlett Place by Hey City Theater of Minneapolis, with a cast of mostly area actors.
This is the opening event of the Broadway Theatre Season at the Mechanic, even though it takes place at Scarlett Place in the Baltimore Inner Harbor -- and with eight performances per week, the American divorce rate is likely to skyrocket ever further than it has already.
This is one of those theatrical experiences that absolutely requires a good amount of pre-disposition, and a healthy dose of cynicism about the ritual of nuptials won't hurt either. Another tip would be to go with a fun-loving group large and outrageous enough to get lost in. A kind of Totanic voyange wedding, Tony n' Tina's is an Italian-American Catholic panoply of tackiness and bad taste. At its best, it is wildly amusing -- at times, when the barrage of stage business gets somewhat repetitious, guests begin surreptitiously checking their watches.
To a great extent, the show relies on the improvisational skills of its cast of 30, including bridesmaids, groomsmen, mother-of-the-bride and father-of-the-groom (as well as his much younger girlfriend), family and friends of the nearly happy couple, dancers and musicians. The wedding festivities include a brief ceremony at "Vinnie Black's Venetian Love Grotto," after which the entire audience is transferred to "Vinnie Black's Blue Lagoon" for the dinner, dance and reception. Carey Wong's ceremony site and reception hall settings and Brigid S. Borka's outlandish costumes are both studies in unadulterated kitsch.
Emcee Vinnie is played by John Brady, who manages to keep the laugh meter peaking all night with his lounge lizard intonations and rapid-fire one-liners. As the bride, Lisa Ray is a gum-chewing beauty who seems the perfect match for her reluctant refugee from bachelorhood, Tony, played with convincing dazzle and rough-hewn charm by native DC area actor Michael Todaro.
Among the other standout characterizations in this evening of mock celebration is Janet Paone's brash interpretation of the bride's mother (wait til you hear her sing at the reception!) whose dress, she confides with the audience, is a one-day loaner from Nordstrom's.
Tony n' Tina's Wedding has been going strong in New York since 1985, and successful regional productions began to spring up ever since. If you like the idea of joining the conga line at a wedding reception after a fully-catered Italian dinner, and you think you might relish watching two dysfunctional families go through a surprise-filled evening in all-too-familiar surroundings just for laughs, then this is a show-biz marriage made in heaven just for you.
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Richard Gist's Theatre Page.