Community Corner

Village Players Laugh Their Way to Vegas

The Village Players of Hatboro's production of "Four Weddings and an Elvis" begins Friday and continues through Jan. 21.

Practically nothing is more over-the-top than Las Vegas weddings, and, of course, Elvis impersonators.

Playwright Nancy Frick, of Plymouth Meeting, combined both in her comedic which will be staged beginning Friday at .

“Love is wonderful fodder,” said Frick, who works by day writing in the marketing/advertising field. “I knew I would write the story some day.”

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Frick herself was married in Las Vegas - 10 years prior to the play’s creation in the late ‘90s. With her husband in mind, she quips that writing what would become her first published play wasn’t on her mind as she exchanged vows.

“I wasn’t actually thinking about it in the ceremony,” she said, adding that, unlike some of her other productions, the characters are not modeled after people she knows.

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Instead, it’s all about having fun – with both a “good” Elvis wannabe and one “supposed to be 70 years old and bad,” according to the show’s director, Fran Carroll. 

“We didn’t pick the fat Elvis … and it’s not the young Elvis,” Carroll said. “It’s the white jumpsuit - not fat - Elvis.”

While those hanging on the edges of their seats for that next punchline may hear snippets of Elvis renditions throughout the play, Carroll sought out non-Elvis wedding song suggestions from his Facebook friends a few weeks ago to play prior to the show’s start and during intermission.

“I went the exact opposite,” he said. “I didn’t go for the obvious route … I kind of made it personal for the cast.”

And somewhere in the midst of it all, cast members will either marry or be married as four weddings are officiated – by Elvis, of course - at a small Las Vegas wedding chapel.

“Everybody gets at least one big laugh,” said Carroll of the cast. “We try to make our plays very contagious.”

Frick, who plans to be in Hatboro to see the staging of her vision, said she’s written all but one comedy. Her desire to make spectators “float out feeling wonderful” keeps her writing funny as opposed to serious almost exclusively.

“It just offers a very carefree, light hilarious evening that will help you put aside anything that’s keeping you down in your life. That’s the wonder of comedy and the wonder of theater,” Frick said. “It can take you away from everything if only for a couple of hours.”

And, at least in this journey, the destination is Las Vegas.

If you go

The Village Players' production of "Four Weddings and an Elvis" begins Friday and continues through Jan. 21. For more information, or to purchase tickets, click here.

A performance on Jan. 19 will benefit nearby and help cover the expense of new . For information, or tickets for that production, call John Farnen at 215-512-1093 or email ptafarnen@comcast.net, Tom McMackin at 215-443-8459 or email mcmackintire@comcast.net, or Sue Goodreds at 215-674-2500 or email susangoodreds@comcast.net.


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