Review: An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical at Opera House is ‘an awesome love letter to 80s music’

Combining the romantic military drama from the 1982 film of the same name with an 80’s jukebox musical, the Curve’s production of An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical soars into the Manchester Opera House with action, romance, heartache and pain in this musical show about never giving up on your dreams.

The plot follows the working-class Zack Mayo (Luke Baker) who after his mother’s suicide and living with an alcoholic Father, Byron (Tim Rogers), Mayo tries to leave his life of hardship behind by achieving his dream of becoming a jet pilot at The Naval Aviation Training facility in Pensacola, Florida. Mayo is joined by Sid Worley (Paul French) son of wealthy Admiral Worley who joins the navy on the order of his parents, and cadets Eduardo Cortez (Lucas Piquero), Louis Perryman (Chris Breistein), Hooper (Lukin Simmonds) and Casey Seegar (Olivia Foster-Browne).

An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical

Zack and the other cadets must struggle to prove themselves under the watchful eye of the ruthless Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (Jamal Kane Crawford) who seeks to weed out any weak recruits as he rules the program with an iron fist.

Running parallel to the Naval plot, is the romantic drama surrounding Zack and Sid’s growing relationships with Paula Pokrifki (Georgia Lennon) and Lynette Pomeroy (played by Julia Jones) both factory workers working with Paula’s long enduring mother Esther (Melanie Masson) and her sister Aunt Bunny (Wendi Harriot) who live local to the Naval training base and struggle with a women’s place in this patriarchal military part of America.

While the show is a little hard to follow at first as the show introduces quite a lot of characters from the onset, the strength of the cast and the likeability of the characters means the plot soon finds its feet and clears these hurdles to deliver a memorable musical show.

To bring the story of the film to the stage, the show features several 80’s songs from the time of the original film’s cinema release. With songs such as Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” and “Livin’ On A Prayer, “I Want To Know What Love Is” by Foreigner, Europe’s “The Final Countdown” and many more eighties’ hits.

An impressive selection of hits

It is impressive how the show works these songs into the narrative, working side by side with the military and romantic plots of the characters, though some songs fit a little bit more than others.

Another impressive feat of the production is the way the show retools some of the songs to better fit the narrative, such as with the opening number with the prospective naval recruits singing “In The Navy Now” a version of Status Quo’s song “In the Army Now” as well as Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend” becomes “Dressing for the Weekend” as the Naval recruits prepare their Naval uniforms for a “Liberty” night on the town.

Jamal Kane Crawford delights audiences as Gunnery Sergeant Foley as he channels the late great Louis Gosset. Jr while he makes the role his own with his infectious stage presence and it is always great to see him appear on stage to challenge the recruits at the naval base with his explosive charisma, particularly whenever he clashes with Zack who he nicknames “Mayonnaise”.

Strong performances from a classy cast

Luke Baker, Paul French, Georgia Lennon and Julia Jones all deliver strong performances, with all of them bringing their characters to life on stage and impressing the audiences with their vocal performances, Baker in a fiery duet with Tim Rogers in “Blaze of Glory” when Zack sings with his estranged father.

French stands out with an emotional performance of “Family Man”, Lennon brings her powerful voice to her rendition of Heart’s song “Alone” and Julia Jones steps up to take centre stage with a great performance of “Material Girl”.

Also impressive are the vocal performances of Melanie Masson, Tim Rogers and Wendi Harriot in songs such as “I Am Woman” and “Kids in America”

Olivia Foster-Browne shines as the determined Casey Seegar, nicknamed the “Ghetto Girl”, she wants to become the first-ever woman to qualify for the role of jet pilot which brings her into conflict with the ambitious Zack.

The rivalry between Mayo and Seegar is fun to see play out throughout the show as they grow as naval cadets. Foster-Browne also gets to impress when she demonstrates her singing ability in her rendition of “When The Going Gets Tough”.

The show is relatively well-paced split into two acts both around an hour each in length with a twenty-minute interval. The Set design (Michael Taylor) is also impressive with a minimalist scaffolding-like base design that uses light-up signs (lighting by Ben Cracknell) to highlight the location change and when it is combined with the scenic props, the set not only allows the scene to change with ease but serves as a great example of achieving more with less.

Tickets for An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical at The Palace Theatre

Directed by Nikolai Foster and written by Douglas Day Stewart and Sharleen Cooper Cohen, with laughs, fights, tragedy and romance, An Officer and A Gentleman: The Musical is both a great drama and a love letter to the music of the eighties, for fans of the original film and newcomers alike.

An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical is currently showing at Manchester Opera House until Saturday the 4th of May. 

You can get tickets by clicking here