(seen at the afternoon performance on 4th April 2024)
An unexpectedly moving 1982 movie, with a sequel book due in June 2024. The monkey always loved the first and can’t wait to read the second (Zack and Paula’s daughter wants to follow her father into the sky, apparently).
The musical has had a less successful past. First conceived with an original score in Australia in 2013, the show never caught on and ended its run early. In 2018 the Curve, Leicester took it in a new direction, jettisoning the showtunes in favour of a string of 1980s pop hits to accompany the story.
Still a tale of a neglected American Navy sailor’s boy hoping to become a jet-flying officer by undergoing gruelling basic training, the movie’s writer Douglas Day Steward has worked with Sharleen Cooper Cohen to expand and blend his screenplay for the theatre.
It mostly does not work.
The beautifully drawn characters and their interdependence as relationships grow are hacked so as to destabilise the very roots of the story. The idea of forming supportive bonds as career and emotional challenges unfold is gone, replaced by contrived confrontation and situations surrounding race and gender identity simply not present in the defined 1982 setting.
As for the songs, most were not written at the time the show is set, and the lyrics rarely fit the situation. Some are fun numbers occasionally carrying the mood well, but others, most notably an ill-timed slow “I Want To Know What Love Is” in Paula and Zack’s motel room when passion is running so fast and high, stop the show for all the wrong reasons.
Others just clunk, and few are sung in their entirety, though the odd clever arrangement by George Dyer makes sense. “Heart of Glass” surprising in context, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” setting a mood even if Tom Marshall’s sound design was not mixing well that afternoon, producing a shriller sound than might be expected.
When choreographer Joanna Goodwin hands in her own D.O.R. half way through act two with “Material Girl” – simply copying the original Madonna video (it works, it’s fun, but honey it ain’t musical theatre m’kaay) the show could finally hit the buffers...
... except that experienced director Nikolia Foster manages to throw away the climactic scene by starting it way too early with a factory choral and leaving us all underwhelmed with the final “sweep off her feet” we had anticipated eagerly all through.
Our cast at least made the effort to overcome the teeth-gritting dialogue added around the smooth film lines; and deal also with Michael Taylor’s barely functional set that left incongruous small items stuck in the wrong scenes (and, in the costume department, demonstrated a lack of knowledge of female pregnancy).
James Wilkinson-Jones (covering for absent Luke Baker) as Zack Mayo could never replicate Richard Gere, but uses his inexperience to advantage as it brings a little less swagger to the character, making the vulnerability a shade more credible.
Playing opposite Georgia Lennon’s Paula Pokrifki, the pairing makes complete sense, her leadership of their lives steering his awkwardness. Lennon’s voice overcame the sound issues as well, to her credit.
Other key pairing Paul French as Sid Worley and Sinead Long as Lynette Pomeroy is equally effective. Long enjoying her solo Madonna tribute as much as the drama she causes, French clearly relishing his lengthy story arc and emotional transformations.
As Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, Jamal Kane Crawford may appear young, but mostly had control of his recruits. Not dominating as perhaps he should have been, but his final “silver dollar” sequence is well handled – and we won’t mention his dancing moment if Olivia Foster-Browne’s Casey Seegar doesn’t.
Foster-Browne is sadly undermined by the massive changes to her character between film and stage version, but she copes admirably with what is left when her motivation and relationship with Mayo has been so skewed.
In smaller roles, Tim Rogers as Zack’s father Byron gets a neatly written moment to shine, Wedi Harriott as Aunt Bunny likewise in a quick solo link and with Melanie Masson (Paula’s mother, Esther) gossiping at work and after-hours.
Other 1980s movies have made good to very good musicals in their leap from screen to stage. Despite lengthy efforts, this is not one of them.
In terms of a future life, the monkey would venture sadly that in this form the show really does have nowhere else to go.
2 stars.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner. Used by kind permission of the New Wimbledon Theatre.