An Officer and a Gentleman is a film I've
never seen but certainly know of. I am aware of the famous ending, when Zach finally
finds his inner Gentleman and lifts Paula up into his arms. An iconic cinematic
moment engraved in my subconscious. Now the film has been transformed into a
musical, with the implementation of well-known 80s songs.
Zack Mayo desires to become a US Navy
Pilot. However, he arrives into a boot camp too much on the cocky side, and Drill
Sergeant Foley doesn’t make his time there easy for him. Zack's life takes off drastically,
he falls for local girl Paula Pokrifki, and the tragic death of one of his
friends unfortunately takes place. These varying life experiences guide him to
realise what is important: love, friendship, and being yourself. It’s only when
he realises this, he can truly earn the special titles of Officer and Gentleman.
While Gentleman is in the title, one of the
musical's underlying themes looked at gender inequality. It picked apart the
role of women in the Navy and examined how the women were spoken about by the
men; mainly talked about like sex objects. On the contrary, the main story line
had it's positive moments, where the man respected and loved the woman. Fundamentally,
all this was the reason why, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was
such a sensational number. Performed with oozing passion and soul by the actresses
on the factory set. The fact that the number was cut off at the end by a man
telling them to get back to work, served as a reminder of the walls women still
face today in the world of work. Additionally, the story rhetorically asked,
what is a Gentleman? What does it mean to be masculine? At what point does
masculinity become toxic?
Jonny Fines played the outgoing lead
character, Zack. The changes to his character, shaped by the plotline, were
clearly shown. While Fines had strong resonance in his singing voice and a
great range, his tone was sometimes nasally. With James Darch, who understudied
the role of Sid for that performance, his voice wasn't always loud enough. But,
in act two and the number "Family Man", Darch's acting through song shined
through. Similarly, Jessica Daley's vocal rendition of "Alone" was a
stand-out performance. In the role of Lynette, her acting was raw and dynamic, and
her vocal control was commendable. Emil Foley (Ray Shell) provided moments of
humour, also drama too, especially in moments where his character was patriotic
and full of spirit.
The set kind of resembled the design of the
National Theatre's 2013 production of Othello. Michael Taylor's design mainly compromised
of concrete walls and sliding doors. Projected onto the set were various images
of locations, which provided context. The video projection design was rather lively
at times, distracting us away from the action on stage. When the design was
simple, it was at its best. The dramatic flashback moment, incorporating projection,
was a memorable scene indeed. Tom Marshall's sound design did not slip under
the radar, and provided atmospheric points in time during the show.
Upon hearing 80s music would be featured in
this performance, I did wonder whether it would work. The "Rubiks cube"
colourful and upbeat pop music of the 1980s put side by side with a drama about
a young man training to be in the Navy; both elements seemed worlds apart from
one another. Saying that, it worked. Credit to George Dyer, who orchestrated and
arranged the beautiful music. Thanks to Dyer, the 80s music sounded totally
different and fitted into the musical like a glove. The songs were cleverly re-contextualised
to fit the story-line and themes in the musical. Overall verdict: an
entertaining night out at the theatre.
Reviewer - Sam Lowe
On - 13/8/18
No comments:
Post a Comment