The Wedding Singer, Mercury Summer Stock

(Left to right: Dan DiCello as Sammy, Will Sanborn as Robbie, and Brian Marshall as George)

Some decades are easy to identify at a glance. And once you see a mobile phone the size of a shoebox, you know you’re in the 1980s. (As the TV commercials said at the time, “It weighs only two pounds!”)

Well, that phone and lots of other ‘80s detritus is on display in The Wedding Singer, now being produced by Mercury Summer Stock. This song-heavy adaptation of the Adam Sandler flick features music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Tim Herlihy and Beguelin. None of those individuals is credited in the program—either an unforgivable oversight or a detestable decision.

Of course, the trouble with adapting an Adam Sandler movie is that you don’t have Adam Sandler to carry the comedy load. And that becomes evident as Will Sanborn takes on the unenviable task of doing the title role as Robbie Hart. He’s a singer who’s been jilted at the altar by his party-hearty fiancée Linda (a sizzling Michelle Ireton), and starts taking his frustrations out on his two band members and any of the subsequent weddings he’s booked into.

Sanborn has a nice boyish quality and sings reasonably well, but his occasional attempts at channeling a Sandler-esque delivery fall well short of the mark. As a result, we never quite warm up to Robbie and his marital plight.

However, there are other cast members who are ready and willing to pick up the slack. One of Robbie’s band members is Sammy, a hefty and sweaty fellow played to the hilt by Dan DiCello. And the other guy is (Boy) George, a flamingly gay Brian Marshall who shows off a rather coquettish falsetto singing voice in “George’s Prayer.”

After Robbie’s dreams are shattered, he falls in love with wedding reception waitress Julia (Melissa Sills in an endearing and very well-sung turn). But she’s engaged to marry Glen (Jimmy Ferko), a junk bond broker who covets only money.

And so, the stereotypes abound as the play lurches from one derivative meme to the next. But once you look past that, several of the songs are quite catchy, such as Robbie’s lovesick anthem “Casualty of Love” and Glen’s tribute to bucks in “All About the Green.” Plus, Cindi Verbelun as potty-mouth grandma Rosie and Dani Apple as Julia's cousin Holly chip in with some laughs.

Placed on a Let’s Make a Deal set featuring three curtains, the large and pumped-up ensemble performs admirably under the guidance of director and choreographer Pierre-Jacques Brault and music director Eddie Carney. In short, the show steamrolls over all the material’s inherent bumps and turns this sack of fluff into an enjoyable (if overlong, at 2½ hours) summertime fling.

The Wedding Singer

Through August 16, produced by Mercury Summer Stock at Notre Dame College, 1857 S. Green Road, South Euclid, 216-771-5862.