Spring musical season taking center stage

It sure felt like spring at times this week.

Never fear. It will be back in the 20s by the weekend. Ah, February.

But if you’d like a sure sign of spring, look no further than the beginning of spring musical season at our local area stages. The next couple months will give you plenty of options to support our area young thespians in their theatrical efforts. Read on:

Willoughby South

Willoughby South Drama Club presents its annual spring musical this weekend, “The Wedding Singer.”

The group will be performing three shows this weekend. Show times are Feb. 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 19 at 2:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Union Square, 34101 Stevens Blvd. in Eastlake. Doors open 30 minutes before the show. Get your tickets at online.

“The Wedding Singer” is based on the popular Adam Sandler comedy. According to publisher Music Theatre International, the story takes place in 1985 (my favorite era!) and rock star wannabe Robbie Hart is New Jersey’s favorite wedding singer. He’s the life of the party until his own fiancée leaves him at the altar.

Shot through the heart, Robbie makes every wedding as disastrous as his own. Enter Julia, a winsome waitress who wins his affection. As luck would have it, Julia is about to be married to a Wall Street shark, and, unless Robbie can pull off the performance of a decade, the girl of his dreams will be gone forever.

“This show is full of a ton of fun pop and rock melodies you’ll be singing to yourself on the ride home,” says director Michael Rajko of the songs that are surely on my own personal playlist. “The students have been working incredibly hard to put this one together.

“Come support local high school theatre and have some fun enjoying a night out.”

“Working in ‘The Wedding Singer has been a wonderful way for me to express my creativity and truly see when hard work produces something amazing,” says senior cast member Holly Roeder. “It’s been an honor to help the actors and other backstage members improve in order to put on such an intricate musical!”

Rock out to some fine ’80s nostalgia in Willoughby this weekend.

Fine Arts Association

Elsewhere in Willoughby, the Fine Arts Association is presenting the second weekend of “The Jungle Book” by Joseph Robinette as its first full-length theater production of 2023.

Based on book by Rudyard Kipling, the show opened Feb. 10 and runs through Feb. 26.

Kipling’s classic tale was made into the classic animated Disney film which — like many things Disney — has now been brought to the stage. The story follows the adventure of Mowgli, the Indian boy, raised by caring wolves, befriended by Bagheera, the Panther, and Baloo, the Bear, and threatened by Shere Kahn, the evil tiger. Also present are an array of other jungle creatures.

Interspersed with the Mowgli tale is the equally intriguing story of a young Rudyard Kipling, who is sent from his home in Bombay to a British boarding school where he encounters his own “jungle,” including people—both good and otherwise—who parallel many of the animal characters he created.

Go online to buy tickets.

Young Thespians