If the mullets and dayglow colors of the ’80s make you smile with nostalgia, the Warsaw Federal Incline Theater has a show for you as it opens its 2025 season with The Wedding Singer. “There’s no better way to kick off the summer season,” said director Stacy Searle in an interview with CityBeat. “It’s a charming ode to the ’80s.”
Now based in Chicago, Cincinnati native Searle returns for her third production at the Incline, having previously directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Peter and the Starcatcher. “It’s nice to come home,” she said. “When I was 19, I worked on the Showboat Majestic with Cincinnati Landmark Productions and have remained good friends with everyone.”
The Wedding Singer, based on the 1998 rom-com movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, features new music by Matthew Sklar as well as the two iconic original songs from the film: “Somebody Kill Me” and “Grow Old With You.”
“There’s something for everyone in this show, whether they lived through it or its history for them,” said Searle. “The wigs are outlandish. Julia Gulia is still funny. The story has a lot of heart, with crazy characters, but they’re going through something while trying to find themselves and their dreams.”
As most local theaters are winding down for the season, the Incline is just getting started. “A lot of people think of summer as an off time for theater,” said Rodger Pille, executive director of Cincinnati Landmark Productions in a conversation with CityBeat. “We lean into it and pick shows that feel like a summer night. The Wedding Singer feels like you’re going to a movie with your friends. For other shows this season, it’s sitting back and listening to some music or having a laugh.”
The Wedding Singer cast includes several actors from the recent production of Singing in the Rain at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts: Cian Steele (Robbie), Trey Finkenstead (Sammy) and Cassidy Perme (Linda). “The Wedding Singer features a nice group of trained adults working really well with new Cincinnati talent,” said Searle. “It’s one of the reasons we can produce as much as we do,” said Pille. “There’s a talent base to support it.”
CLP produces five productions in four months: four at the Incline and a Cincinnati Young People’s Theatre production at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts. The 2025 CYPT show is Children of Eden (July 24 – Aug. 3) by Stephen Schwartz, the creator of Wicked, Godspell and Pippin.
It’s been 10 years since the Incline opened, but due to the pandemic, 2025 is only its eighth summer season. They’ll be celebrating the building dedication during the run of The Wedding Singer. “This is a community that has grown around the arts,” said Searle. “The restaurants are fantastic, the view is fantastic, and it has a totally different vibe from everywhere in Cincinnati.”
“All the shows have a good summer vibe to them,” said Pille. “There’s a little bit of a time machine aspect to it. After The Wedding Singer visits the ‘80s, we’re transporting audiences to 1956 with Million Dollar Quartet, recreating a night with completely different music and vibe. And Hairspray is an ode to the ‘60s.”
Choose your favorite decade, then pick your show for the Incline’s 2025 summer season.
THE WEDDING SINGER, music by Matthew Sklar, book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy lyrics by Chad Beguelin (April 16 – May 11). He’s lost his rock star dreams and fiancée, but wedding singer Robbie Hart gets a second chance at love with waitress Julia. Unfortunately, she’s engaged to a Wall Street jerk. Can Robbie win her over with a song? Ted Baldwin is the musical director for the 1980s-inspired score.
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux (May 28 – June 22). Set on Dec. 4, 1956, when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley recorded a jam session together at Sun Records in Memphis, the show features iconic songs including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Walk the Line” and “Great Balls of Fire.” Hunter Henrickson, who appeared in Memorial Hall’s 2019 production of Ring of Fire, serves as director and musical director for the production.
BURGERTOWN by Christine Jones, Ken Jones and Jamey Strawn (July 9 – Aug. 3). This musical comedy, although set in Chicago, has strong ties to Cincinnati with writer Ken Jones (who is also the Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Theatre and a Regent’s Professor at Northern Kentucky University) directing this production alongside co-writer Strawn (Theatre & Dance Program Head Musical Theatre at NKU) as musical director. Burgertown tells the story of fry cook Danny O’Riley whose culinary creation takes the fast-food world by storm, complete with bad guys, big money and romance.
HAIRSPRAY, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan (Aug. 20 – Sept. 14). Directed by NKU Theater faculty member Dee Anne Bryll, a familiar name to local theater audiences for her work as a choreographer, director and actress at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the Carnegie and Falcon Theatre Company. The family-friendly musical is based on the 1988 John Waters film. Set in 1962, teen Tracy Turnblad’s appearance on a local dance show changes her life, but not her beehive hairdo.
For additional information on the Warsaw Federal Incline Theater’s 2025 season, visit cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com/incline.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s April 30 print edition.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.