If you remember the 1980s, the music will take you back to middle school, high school, college or young adulthood, depending on where you were back in the decade of tight pants, high heels and big hair. The musical gives us that – of course – but there’s so much more.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN MOVIE MOVIE
The movie is well-loved for the Grammy- and Oscar-winning #1 hit “Up Where We Belong,” sung by Joe Coker and Jennifer Warnes. It’s faithful to the spirit and era of the sweeping romance/military paean while reflecting current ideas on women (we’re not all in a race to the altar), class and race. Scanlan described the updated musical as an extension of the film rather than a retelling of it. The team, led by Scanlan, retooled the musical – which premiered in Sydney, Australia in 2012 and, rare for a “Broadway Lights” offering, has never been on Broadway – and then went directly into rehearsals once the lockdown was lifted. The pause allowed the creative team – a group of Broadway veterans – to rework the show while quarantining together on location in Cleveland. The show was ready to launch at the beginning of 2020 but – like all theater – was cancelled due to COVID. When tragedy befalls a fellow candidate, Zack learns the importance of friendship and honor, finds the courage to become the best version of himself and wins over the woman he’s meant to be with. On his journey of self-discovery, Zack falls for a feisty and independent factory worker. Foley may prove an insurmountable obstacle. Graduating from the elite program will secure Zack’s future, but Sgt. Navy’s Officer Training School, but his drill sergeant (Louis Gossett, Jr.) doesn’t like his arrogant attitude. If you’re a fan of the 1982 movie, you’ll likely love the updated musical version.īut even if you weren’t a fan of the film, you may still appreciate how it’s been modernized while remaining true to its origins.Īnd if you somehow managed not to have seen the movie, here’s a synopsis: Zack Mayo has the determination and stamina for the U.S. Still, this is a love story at, and to, its very core. “In the musical, she’s interested in more than just the guy.” The bigger the dream, the bigger the heartbreak if it doesn’t come true.” “She needs to dream of being a lawyer, he believes. “The Richard Gere character, Zack, reflects back to her that her dream isn’t big enough,” Scanlan said. (The factory gives her a place to showcase her penchant for advocating for her fellow workers.) But she has a dream: She wants to be a paralegal. In the stage adaptation, Paula’s still in a small town and still a factory worker. She’s all reaction to Richard Gere.” And the other female lead is single-mindedly determined to marry a military officer. “But there’s a lot we don’t know about her character and what motivates her. “Hers is my favorite performance of the movie,” Scanlan ( Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture) said.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN MOVIE UPDATE
We felt a mandate to update that.”ĭebra Winger’s character (Paula), for instance, isn’t fully realized in the film. “The way we look at the female characters today is much different than it was in the early 1980s. “We needed a reason to tell the same story again 39 years later,” said Dick Scanlan, co-author and director of the musical adaptation of the 1982 film, An Officer and a Gentleman.