Interactive has nice ring to it
Locally produced wedding comedy ‘Diego and Drew Say I Do’ will run March 31-April 10
Gay nuptials are coming to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and you can be a guest.
That is, if you’re willing to join an audience who will function as wedding guests in the interactive comedy “Diego and Drew Say I Do,” which runs March 31-April 10. The theatric event features a buffet dinner, wedding cake and champagne toast for the audience, and is reminiscent of the off-Broadway hit “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding.”
“I thought itwould be great to have an updated version with a gay couple,” says Matt May, who cowrote and co-produced the play with Jennifer Sierra-Grobbelaar. “Then, Iwas out at dinner with [Broward Center programming director] Jill Kratish, and I just opened my mouth and said, ‘What do you think about this?’ And that’s howit happened. So Jenn and I said, ‘Let’s take a crack at it.’ ”
May and Sierra-Grobbelaar are fixtures on the local theater scene, both serving as panelists for the Carbonell Awards. May is the founder of Verve Central Productions, a theatric and entertainment event company. Sierra-Grobbelaar is the marketing and media relations director of Cirque Dreams.
“We really got started on Valentine’s Day last year,” Sierra-Grobbelaar says. “That particular night, we were planning on seeing Cheyenne Jackson at Parker Playhouse, andwe stopped at Naked Grape in Wilton Manors for a glass of wine beforehand, andwe started talking about this project. We really came up with the idea then, what the title should be, who these families should be, where these families are from— a general overview, a very, very rough schematic. Then, wewent to see Cheyenne Jackson, and it happened very organically and very naturally from there.”
May says their mantra was simple. “Jennifer and I, we approached this with: “What would we, as audience members, want to see and experience?’ ” he says.
They came up with a show centered on same-sex couple Diego-Torres and Andrew Boudreaux III and their eccentric families— one Hispanic, the other Southern — mixing it up on the special day with awound-tight wedding planner; a wedding singer froma boy band and, of course, a drag queen.
“We took great care,” Sierra-Grobbelaar says, “developing backstories for each character, down to where theywere born, where they went to school, what kind of car they drive, all of that because we want them to be real.”
“Diego and Drew Say I Do” runs March 31-April 10 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201SWFifth Avenue, in Fort Lauderdale. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 6 p.m. Sundays; with 4 p.m. matinees Saturdays and 1p.m. matinees Sundays. Tickets cost $59.50 and include buffet dinner, cake and champagne toast (there is a cash bar). VIP tickets for select performances cost $105 and include reserved seating, a meet and greet with the cast and a signed poster. To order, call 954-462-0222 or go to BrowardCenter.org.