With apologies to Marcel Proust, nostalgia isn’t always sun-dappled reverie. For ’80s Movie, director James Zager and Metro Milwaukee Voices have collected over two dozen songs from the era of spandex, synthesizers and Aqua Net and draped them across five characters. The Dork, Diva, Dingbat, Dancer and Daredevil all get a chance to tell their story at a therapy session.
Set in Anthony Michael Juvenile Hall, low hanging fruits and guilty pleasures abound. Anyone (un)lucky enough to have made it through the decade will likely shake their head and laugh. Riffing heavily on touchstones—The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Footloose, Sixteen Candles, Heathers and Weird Science—the cast pout and bop through each character’s vignette in explaining the circumstances that landed them in this detention. Rae Elizabeth Pare’s channeling of Ally Sheedy is dead-on.
With a therapist and an all-seeing janitor to keep the show moving through the land of acid-washed denim, popped-collar Polo shirts and oversized crucifixes, Donna Kummer’s keyboard captures the era with piano, cheesy synths and everything in-between. Quick one-liners like “the Molly bar and grill in Ringwald County,” “you can call me Al” or “Lithgow County” make you wonder how many pop culture references one can squeeze into a two act show.
Actually, the song selection for ’80s Movie underscores how important female artists were to the decade where music videos replaced radio—from mega stars like Madonna to obscure treasures like the late Patty Donahue. And in one gem, the cast illuminate the singular genius of the B-52s campy rock as Trojan Horse. While the “Leave It To Beaver” family wrings their hands over the troubled teen in their midst, a nervous maid keeps popping onto the stage, first with a lone potato (which may or may not be a reference to Peter Falk’s “Columbo”), then a bowl of potatoes before the cast breaks into “Private Idaho.”
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Through March 31 at the Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets, visit milwaukeemetrovoices.org.
