Back to the 80's

This story of a group of senior year pupils at William Ocean High School was a perfect vehicle for the 52 P2-S1 youngsters who took to the stage with great energy and enthusiasm singing and dancing along to some of the greatest pop songs of the 1980s. Calum Macleod, as the grown up Corey Palmer Snr, acted as narrator for the piece introducing us to the various characters and telling us of their exploits. He had a good stage presence and a powerful singing voice as shown in his rendition of “Glory of Love” along with his younger self Corey Jnr played by Tarron Miller. He too displayed good acting skills and a good singing voice as shown in his duet with Corey Snr already mentioned and his leads in “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) and “Come on Eileen”. Despite having a broken leg and having to play the part in a wheelchair, Jay Kumar played the part of the school’s sports hero Michael Feldman with great energy especially in the “Footloose” number with his sidekicks Billy (Oliver Zelazko), Lionel (Abbie Mecklenburgh), Huey (Erin Lang) and the ensemble. The school’s science geek Fergal McFerrin III was delightfully played by the diminutive Theo Wang in his bowtie, braces and colourful Argyll patterned hose. He certainly won the heart of the audience when he fought Michael to defend Eileen using his “wax on, wax off” Karate skills. The girls had equally strong characters. Tiffany, Corey’s love interest, played by Alejandra Rivera again showed excellent acting skills and a good singing voice especially in the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” number with her friends Cyndi (Pixie Stuart), Mel (Beau Larkins) and Kim (Kyla Falconer) which had the audience clapping along. Eileen, the new girl to the school and the object of Michael’s cruel jokes, was well played by Zara Watt and her rendition of “Walking on Sunshine” with her supporters Laura (Miranda Serrano) and Debbie (Luna de Rosso) was another number that had the audience clapping along. Mark Wright and Lois Ramseyer as teachers Mr Cocker and Miss Brannigan were a very believable couple struggling to overcome trust issues. Mark’s strong voice shone in his rendition of “You Give Love a Bad Name” as did Lois’s in “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. The Chorus singing was strong especially in the upbeat numbers like the opening “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”, “Celebrate Good Times”, “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” and the finale “Back to the 80’s Megamix”. However the highlight of the chorus performances for me was the powerfully emotional rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World” to close Act 1. The costuming was appropriate to the characters with lots of fluorescent pinks, greens and yellows and of course leg warmers! These colours too were predominant in the excellent video back wall and flats used to represent the scenes of the actions. The 5 piece band led by Rhonda Scott were excellent always supporting but never overpowering the young voices which in the upbeat numbers would have been easy to do. Well done everyone for taking the majority of the first night audience back to the days of their youth – you certainly deserved the extended applause and the standing ovation received.

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