When the original material that many people are familiar with - in this case the film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore - happens to be wonderfully written, extremely funny, perfectly acted and slickly directed, any adaptation of it will be a difficult spectacle to pull off successfully. Add to that the pressure of performing live in front of a sellout audience without the safety net of a second take and there are certainly many positives to be said for the performers in director Karen Bruce's stage version of The Wedding Singer. They achieve a difficult task with some aplomb.

The film certainly had a lot of songs in it but when adapting The Wedding Singer into a musical it's obvious that some of the songs will have to be changed, omitted entirely - most likely for copyright reasons - or in some other way altered to make them into songs that can be sung by an ensemble of performers. It's certainly a shame however that only two of the original songs from the film made it into the stage version. Many of the newly written songs however are enjoyable, funny and well performed. That's not to say that they are as charming at the songs from the movie because they aren't. Songs like Love Stinks are hard to match, but its on-stage stand-in Casualty of Love only proves the point.

The script too has been changed and while chunks of the original lines remain in this stage version many of the lines have been changed, altered or once again omitted entirely. Why the stage version can retain a selection of wholesale lines from the movie and not others is still somewhat of a mystery but of course the stage version should rightly differ from the film version, if only to distinguish the media and to allow the writers and performers to make this their own personal imagining of the story.

There are however bigger problems with this musical. The director has obviously taken the decision to have the cast attempt to use American accents. This in most cases is a failure. Perhaps they could have worried less about the accents and more on the acting and singing? There are several instances of dialogue and acting that is far less subtle than in the film version and this is a shame as the material needs a delicate touch, something of which Jonathan Wilkes (Robbie Hart) and Natalie Casey (Julia Sullivan) are not really capable.

It will be Casey of course, well known from UK TV shows Hollyoaks and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, that will be drawing in the audiences to see this show but it's very difficult not to see her as one of the weakest performers - demonstrated by her constant over-acting. In fact when Jodie Jacobs (Holly) and Simon Lipkin (Sammy) perform Right in Front of Your Eyes it's easy to see that the two of them would have suited the central roles far better than Wilkes and Casey. Wilkes and Casey both have stage experience, but quite why they were cast in the lead roles remains unsure. TV talent shows such as The X Factor tell us that performers need to be a triple threat - to be able to sing, act and dance. Wilkes (despite his impressive on-stage track record) and Casey are not quite capable of all three to the same degree - although perhaps Jacobs and Lipkin are, it's a pity not to have seen more of their talents.

The result, unfortunately, is a pale imitation of the film version which the production company can not suggest that they were not attempting, at least to some degree, to recreate as the show is billed as "The Hit Movie Live On Stage!"

On a positive note the energy and enthusiasm of the performers can not be faulted. And the support cast, as mentioned, is strong. The stage direction is also inventive and the costumes were very good.

The Wedding Singer runs at the Royal Centre until Saturday 19th July 2008

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