Shotgun Wedding begins THIS WEEK.
The Toronto Fringe Festival begins on Wednesday night and Opening Night Pre-Sale Tickets are SOLD OUT (you can still rush though or come another night).
If you’re getting into the groove and coming in your cotillion-best, you’re probably steaming that ruffly dress with the satin and tulle or lint-rolling the dust off that teal microfibre double-breasted suit you’re wearing with the paisley rayon shirt. It’s the biggest night of your life (again) so why not take a second to put some music on your tape deck.
Very slowly, we’ve been counting down the Top 10 Songs that would make up the ultimate ‘Shotgun Wedding’ Mixtape… and now
We’ve come to NUMBER ONE.
‘Weak’ by SWV is the song that guys wanted girls to sing to them and its the song that girls wanted to sing to a guy who was worth singing it to. This song is sung even today as cover versions or in karaoke sessions by kids who weren’t even born when the Sisters With Voices came out with this gem. ‘Weak’ came out of nowhere. These girls weren’t divas like En Vogue were — they were regular girls… ‘Around The Way’ girls expressing themselves honestly about the feeling of innocent, first-time love:
I get so weak in the knees I can hardly speak.
I lose all control and something takes over me.
In a daze, your love’s so amazing, it’s not a phase.
I want you to stay with me, by my side.
I swallow my pride, your love is so sweet.
It knocks me right off of my feet.
I can’t explain why your loving makes me weak.
There were a lot of great songs in 1993. So what makes ‘Weak’ number one in my books? ‘Weak’ represents a moment, frozen in time – the calm before the storm called ‘real life’, where heartaches left wounds and all of a sudden the choices we made mattered. After ‘Weak’, the world outside of our high school walls began to open up and it was sort of scary. Regardless of how daunting life after high school seemed, it was time to make the choices that would ultimately dictate how our lives would turn out next. After that, ‘not knowing’ was no longer a luxury.
‘Weak’ wasn’t high concept, it was honest — honest about how we felt about love, and honest about what we still didn’t know. According to SWV, it was OK to be ‘knocked off your feet’ and not be able to explain why and just fine to be in a daze knowing fully well deep down inside that it probably IS a phase. It didn’t matter — because at that moment, the feeling was making us, well…. weak.
That’s why, after 17 years, ‘Weak’ comes on the radio and we realize that we’ve stopped what we were doing and we’ve listened to the whole song in its entirety, subconsciously paying tribute to our memories, our past loves, our old times — good and bad — and the friends we’ve had, lost and kept along the way. Few songs have this kind of power and it’s this power that makes a good song… a classic.
‘Weak’ by SWV is the #1 Shotgun Wedding Song from 1993.
Quixotic Theatre & The Carlos Bulosan Theatre present
SHOTGUN WEDDING
Written by Leonard Cervantes
Original Musical Compositions by Kierscey Rand
“A 90s mix tape musical, it`s Glee before Glee was Glee”
July 6th – 17th at 8:00PM
No show on Monday
Alexandra Park Community Centre
105 Grange Court Toronto
at SPADINA & DUNDAS
MAP
Directed by Catherine Hernandez
Featuring Belinda Corpuz, Richie Guzman, Tony Ofori, Arlene Paculan, Mickey Rodriguez & Jeff Yung,
Stagemanagement by Emma Mackenzie Hillier
Set & Costumes by Jodinand Aguillon
Produced by Renna Reddie
www.shotgunweddingthemusical.com
$10 Tickets
Tickets available at the Door starting at 7PM on performance nights
Advanced tickets available by calling
(416)966-1062 or www.fringetoronto.com
additional surcharges may apply
all ticket sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges
No Latecomers. No Exceptions.
Shotgun Wedding: The Musical 