Kean University's Department of Theatre presents Kiss the Bride, which will be showing through Saturday, April 9, 2016. Directed by Wes Grantom and written by John J. Wooten, the Producing Artistic Director of Premiere Stages, it was a hilarious piece with fantastic characters.

Kerry Borowski, a senior theatre major and the Assistant Director of the show, showed the high recognition of Guest Director Grantom, who has Broadway credits. Borowski thought it was especially nice and a completely different style that had the cast and crew being able to work with Granton, who is used to working with professional actors as opposed to students.

The last showing of the weekend, on Sunday, April 3, 2016, ran from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. A lot of people went to the show and the audience was full of laughs. It featured a 12 person cast, centered on a wedding ceremony. The show had many themes including greed, lust, love and relationships.

Austin Brecht, a graduating senior at Kean University earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance, played Stanley in the show. He stated that he loved being a part of this production, especially as a graduating senior.

“Being set in 1996, it offers a highly amusing hour and a half performance for the audience, involving tons of miscommunication, confusion, champagne, brides, and much more.”

For the first of the show, Lou, the groom wanted wedding guest Stanley to have sex with the bride, Alice. At the same time, he hired two strangers on the phone to kill his bride in order to steal the money from his wealthy but promiscuous wife. Unbeknownst to everyone, he planned to stage her death as a suicide.

Stanley attended the wedding with his wife, Katie. He was regarded as the coat check man by Lou and other guests. The show opens up with him trying to tell his wife, Katie, about a secret Lou has. However, Katie, being a friend of Lou’s, got upset and left.

Luby and Mitch, the two hired killers, attended the wedding of Sarah, another bride. After they noticed they went to the wrong wedding because nobody paid them, they kidnapped Sarah and put her in the trunk. Later, they came the correct wedding ceremony but they made the mistake again as they thought Katie was the bride of Lou. At the same time, Luby and Mitch’s killing plan was known by Stanley, as he lied on the floor drunk.

“Most challenging thing…is it’s a farce so it’s really fast paced, so keeping actors engaged and having everything seem fresh and new, and I think the cast and crew achieved that,” Borowski said. “To see live theater and live in the moment is a special experience. It’s important for students to come see the show because the Kean community should be supportive, we’re all in college, working hard and putting our best foot forward. Also, educate yourself about theater.”

The second part of the comedy, it mainly showed the miscommunication, confusion and mistakes among the different roles; the wrong brides, killers and policeman. 

Stanley wore the bride’s dress because he wanted to save Alice, and he successfully let others regard him as the “real bride”. Katie called the police after she escaped from the car, and brought the detective into the wedding.

The second bride Sarah came in and regarded Katie and the detective as the two killers because both Sarah and Katie were put into the same car. Sarah also thought Luby and Mitch were the “real” policemen and asked for their help of staying away with “killers.”

Divya Jacob, a junior education major, stated, “It’s so funny and I think the acting is really good; I love the fast pace of it.”

The show closed with Stanley as he stood near the door and was still regarded as the coat check person by wedding guests.

“The Cast, Crew, and Creative Team have all been incredibly wonderful to work with for the past month, and the production itself is so much fun to be in!” Brecht said. “This play is a fantastically funny comedy and farce. I believe comments on marriage as an aspect of our society and our varying views on it and how people treat the topic.”