A very ‘80s wedding

Mar 14 2008 by Gavin Allen, South Wales Echo

“IT’S a good opportunity to wear a wedding dress before getting married without looking like a psycho,” jokes Natalie Casey, talking about her latest stage role.

And what a wedding dress – a lurid frou-frou number straight out of the 1980s book of fashion crimes.

The wardrobe department’s deliberately bad-taste creations are part of what makes The Wedding Singer such a popular musical – we all love a bit of ‘80s nostalgia, it seems.

It is based on the ‘80s-set film of the same name which starred Adam Sandler as Robbie, the jilted and depressed crooner who falls for Drew Barrymore’s engaged waitress Julia.

“Basically the show is exactly like the film, but on stage with added songs,” says straight-talking Yorkshire girl Casey who plays Julia to Jonathan Wilkes’ Robbie.

“The songs are all original compositions but done in the style of the ‘80s, so you will immediately recognise the chords and the instruments.”

Taking a lead role in a musical may seem like quite a shift for Casey, best known for BBC sitcom Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps where she plays Donna, girlfriend of Gaz (Will Mellor) and friend of Jonny (Ralph Little).

But Casey, 27, earned her singing stripes very early in her career, becoming the youngest person ever to score a chart entry when her 1984 recording of Chick Chick Chicken made it to No 72; she was three.

Last year she performed in the West End production of Fame alongside Ian ‘H’ Watkins and she credits the Rhondda actor with helping her settle into the stage environment.

“Fame was the first musical I had done in a long time so I didn’t know any of the people in that world,” says the 27-year-old Lancashire-born actress.

“Ian was brilliant with me and he’s a very good friend now.”

But if Casey needs any pointers on stagecraft she turns to her sister Anna-Jane, a West End performer for more than a decade.

“I do ask her for a lot of help because she can give me the kind of advice a dance or singing teacher would charge for,” she laughs.

“There’s a bit of sibling rivalry between us but in a healthy way.

“Jealousy can be a good thing if it drives you to do something positive.”

But Casey has no need to envy her sister’s success because seven series of Two Pints has made her a household face, with the show on a constant cycle of repeats.

“You never know when you start something whether it will be a success but it looked particularly hard for Two Pints because when the first series came out all the critics said it was rubbish.

“But by the second series we started thinking ‘this has got legs’ and then it kept growing, culminating in the live episode we did which attracted the highest audience BBC3 has ever had. It beat Little Britain and The Mighty Boosh.

“The downside of it is that if I turn on the telly at three in the morning my face is generally the first thing I see,” she groans self- deprecatingly.

The series’ success gave the former Hollyoaks actress a career boost in an industry in which she sometimes feels like a pretender.

“I didn’t go to drama school,” she confesses, “so being in such a long-running series taught me so much.

“But the other work that turned out to be huge for me was doing Hobson’s Choice, a play I did two years ago, because it introduced me to my boyfriend Paul Kemp, so I’ll always be forever grateful for that. He’s a proper serious actor, I’m just mucking around.”

The Wedding Singer is at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, from March 17-22. Tickets cost £5-£32 from 08700 402 000.