Currently open until November 9th, Wittenberg’s Theater and Dance department is showing off the second Student Lab Theater production of the semester: the dark comedy “I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire,” written by Samantha Murley and directed by Witt staple Greyson Sanders. Students will enjoy this raunchy yet surprisingly deep story of the parasocial relationships we create.
“I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire” (IGMYTM) stars 2004 eighth-grader Shelby Hinkley, whose life is a teen-age hell. Struggling with bullying from her peers and neglectful parents, she copes through a concerning obsession with Tobey Maguire, which leads to kidnapping him and forcing him to marry her in her basement. However, she quickly begins to realize that he isn’t exactly the perfect man she imagined he was, especially when he tries to escape. Over the 105-minute runtime, Shelby learns that parasocial relationships aren’t the real emotional connections people need to thrive in the messy web of life (pun intended).
A recent play debuting in 2023, this show may be fresh, but the transcendent story is familiar to many who engage in fan culture. The obsessive, stalking fangirl was and is an unfortunate reality to some celebrities, and the concept of parasocial relationships is only growing more relevant with the explosion of the Internet and the level of connection it allows, making IGMYTM more than worthy of its place in Witt’s 2025-2026 season.
Acting
The acting in this show is nothing short of phenomenal.
Kylie O’Brian is leading lady Shelby, and she’s making her mark in their first college show. Their comic performance is hilarious in the way a dramatic teen girl often is: through reliance on magazines, yelling back and forth with her mother through walls, and her exaggerated emotions. However, O’Brian’s performance as a teenage girl trying desperately to make one genuine human connection, going so far as to kidnap her favorite celebrity so that he might fill that void, is also heartbreaking and more than incredible for a newcomer.
Lee Dallas is the celebrity hearthrob Tobey Maguire, and they absolutely kill this role. Swearing up a storm, huffing spray paint, and arguing with a hotter and more confident version of himself, Tobey is a laugh a minute, even bantering with the audience at one point. However, the seriousness of his situation is never forgotten, and Dallas teeters perfectly on the edge of mania as Tobey breaks down in Shelby’s basement.
Haleigh Young acts as both Hot Tobey (the suave, straight-out-of-TV version of him both Shelby and Tobey imagine at some point) and the minor character Brenda Dee Cankles, and she does well as both, especially Hot Tobey. The switching between characters is impressive, but beyond that, the comic role in between the drama of Shelby and Tobey’s tense ‘relationship’ is more than welcome in a dark show, and Young brings the comedy to an 11.
Production
Beyond the acting performances, the production of IGMYTM is also fantastic.
The scenery is perfect, encapsulating the essence of a growing girl with a growing obsession metaphorically and literally stuck in a basement bedroom: from the giant teddy bear in the corner; to the colorful Y2K bedding; to the boxes and tubs all over the set; to the Tobey Maguire posters absolutely everywhere, including in the shape of a heart, some with scribbled hearts all over. The era is also well captured, especially with the technology of the CRT brick TV, the corded phone Shelby uses at one point, and the chunky laptop she records videos with.
The costumes are great, as well. The most notable outfits are Shelby’s, especially the lacy wedding dress she can’t zip up and the neon multicolored school dance dress that she wears jeans under. As a prisoner, Tobey doesn’t have many costume changes, but he does dress as Spiderman for one short scene, which more than makes up for it. Finally, Young’s characters have her in a shirt with a muscled figure printed on it and smart dress suits, both of which look good (and the former of which looks perfectly goofy).
Lighting and sound, though often not noticed by the audience, are wonderful in this production. The music choices that run through the whole show, with titles like Avril Lavigne’s "Sk8er Boi," Britney Spears’ "Toxic," and Coldplay’s "Yellow," fully lean into the teen pop of the early 2000s. The lighting is also well done, especially when playing with the depth of scene—focusing the light on either the front (where Tobey is literally chained up) and the back (the main area of Shelby’s bedroom), depending on where the characters are.
“I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire” is a combination of outlandish and sorrowful, and it balances the tragedy and comedy of its main character and its story as a whole beautifully, making it an excellent addition to Witt’s 2025-2026 season. Up next is the annual Fall Dance Concert, opening November 13th!
