Another day, one more iconic 80s film is customized as a stage musical. This model of An Officer and a Gentleman by Douglas Day Stewart (with Sharleen Cooper Cohen) of his personal authentic 1982 screenplay, is a tacky, overblown, flawed manufacturing filled with a plethora of bombastic hits of the last decade.
For these unaware of the unique supply materials, An Officer and a Gentleman follows the story of a bunch of latest recruits on the United States Naval Aviation Training Facility in Pensacola, Florida and the band of native manufacturing unit girls who attempt to hook one in all these would-be officers in an try to flee the drudgery of their dead-end jobs.
Front and centre of the story is the connection between troubled Navy brat Zack (Luke Baker) (woman-chasing, drunkard of a dad, useless mother) and (filled with spirit)“townie” Paula (Georgia Lennon). “Oh joy!” I hear you cry, one other story the place a person has to ‘rescue’ a girl with the intention to give her a greater life (I can hear hackles rise from right here). I’m not certain that in 2024 you may get away with this, it isn’t even forgivable because of its early 80s setting. The utter corniness and pompousness with which the plot is delivered does it no favours both.
It is troubling although, that producers appear to be mining supply materials and material from an period that isn’t precisely an instance of finest remedy of ladies or minorities and in mild of current cultural occasions is that this actually an period we need to revisit? Producers appear to suppose if we mark it as consultant of one other time and place then we will get away with something – you can not. Writer Stewart has nevertheless managed to erase a lot of the unpalatable Reagan-era politics, so we will breathe a small sigh of aid about that.
The motion takes place on a uninteresting however practical set by Michael Taylor. The drab colors evocative of the employees scenario and the US Naval Base however it’s all somewhat uninspiring to the attention. A moveable charcoal gray metal staircase being the visible centre for essentially the most half.
The entire rating may very well be a Now That’s What I Call The 80s album and there are some stomping anthems, nevertheless, most, if not all, obtain a massacring by the hands of this musical theatre solid, whose voices are virtually wholly unsuited to those songs, save for main man Zack (Luke Baker), Aunt Bunny (Wendi Harriott) and Paula’s mother (Melanie Masson) who’re all fine-voiced and the feminine ensemble when singing as one. There are fairly frankly higher voices within the ensemble than the leads or featured performers.
Universal classics comparable to: Livin’ On a Prayer, Alone, Material Girl and I Want to Know What Love Is are all mercilessly butchered. Added to the combo are some baffling preparations which can be lower than simple on the ear: a murdering of Blondie’s Heart of Glass, an unfathomable Kids in America and a caterwauling Girls Just Want to Have Fun to call just a few. The entire manufacturing suffers from the truth that whereas the songs are acquainted mega-hits, they bear little emotional or thematic hyperlink to the motion going down round them. You might be glad to know that THAT scene to Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong is replicated right here on stage to a lot applause by the group.
The important leads seem to have had a charisma bypass and it’s laborious to really feel any empathy for them, save for the doomed Sid (Paul French) whose plight is laid on with a shovel. The solid are working with dialogue that at finest is tacky and for essentially the most half, totally cringe-worthy. Their supply although helps not a jot. There is an absence of power and a sense of apathy from the solid as an entire.
This isn’t going to problem your mind, if we’re being fully trustworthy or cynical, it’s cashing in on audiences’ urge for food for nostalgia and need for an unchallenging night time out. It is certainly all that. There are some much-loved tunes that may entertain each followers of the movie and people new to the story, however that’s the finest that may be mentioned of this sorry endeavour.
Runs till 9 March 2024 | Image: Marc Brenner
