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32 | BOROMAG.COM | AUGUST 2013 THE ARTS Actor Spotlight: The Wedding Singer’s Barry DeBois For a three-week limited engagement, Long Island City’s Secret Theatre will be featuring the first professional production of the musical, "The Wedding Singer", in New York City since its initial Broadway run in 2006. Based on the 1998 romantic comedy film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, it tells the hilariously poignant story of a wedding singer in the 1980s and the waitress who captures his heart. This month, BORO checks in with Astoria’s own Barry DeBois, who plays the title role, Robbie Hart. How many years have you been performing? My grandma had me singing duets with my brother for our church when I was five. My first role that I can remember playing was Sheep #2 at the nativity. You may remember Sheep #2’s classic line from the Bible "Shh, there they are!" I've been involved in plays, musicals, improv, and bands ever since. So, over 20 years. Your character, Robbie, has some disastrous mishaps before 'coming out of the dumpster.' What is your most outrageous performance mishap? When I was playing Captain Hook in “Peter Pan”, I wore huge boots that would sometimes slip down and reveal my bare leg. So, somebody backstage had the idea to ‘safety’ pin my boots to my knickers with something like a four-inch pin. Well, somewhere at the beginning of a long scene I realized that the pin had opened and was digging into my skin. It wasn’t until I sang, danced, climbed over huge set pieces, and had an elaborate sword fight with a flying girl in drag that I got to leave the stage and pull the pin out of my bleeding leg.


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