An Officer and a Gentleman
Photo by Marc Brenner
Review by Martine Silkstone
When I think back to the hit film of the 80s, I must confess I was never a huge fan. It was too dark, subtle and slow moving for me as a young girl and I didn’t truly understand its narrative. Now I’m…ahem…older, I can appreciate that it was just understated and simply took time to develop its characters and explain their complex histories, motivations and emotional baggage.
You have Zack Mayo, a young man who grew up with an alcoholic father after the suicide of his mother. Determined to make more of his life, he enrols in aviation officer school and hopes to become a jet pilot. His training is led by a harsh gunnery sergeant and many of his fellow candidates fail under the constant pressure and abuse. Meanwhile, the local factory girls are hoping to escape their own dull lives by marrying one of these men, perhaps even trapping them with an ‘accidental’ pregnancy.
So far, so depressing.
Zack falls in love with the most sensible of the group, Paula, but thinks she is only after one thing. Then one of the candidates takes his own life, the remaining few finally graduate and, in the last few moments, you get the much-needed boost as our heroine is swept off her feet.
This is an intense story about desperate people, but it is often mistaken for a romance just because of the heady charm of the famous last scene. That is its cross to bear.
And I think that is largely why the stage musical just doesn’t quite work. It doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.
It wants to tell the whole story, build the characters and relationships, take the audience on a journey of pain and redemption – but it also wants to crowbar in a barrage of 80s pop hits.
The ultimate effect being that you don’t really grow to care about any of the protagonists or enjoy any of the music.
There is just too much required exposition to devote any real time to musical numbers, so you may get part of a song and a little taste of choreography, but then it’s all stop and a few lines of dialogue again. Stop start, stop start - all the way through.
There is no denying the clever use of well-known tunes to get you going, if only you were given enough of the song to…well…get going. Even then, I am not convinced that they were all appropriate to the storyline and at times the arrangements were even quite jarring.
On a more positive note, the staging is great and the use of lighting and smoke gives a dramatic and effective backdrop to the action at times. There were also a few stand-out performances from cast members, doing their best with what they had been given.
Photo by Marc Brenner
Luke Baker is all quiet strength and honour as Zack Mayo, the young, military-brat-made-good, overcoming his demons to become a naval aviator. Leading his training is Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley – a powerful portrayal by Jamal Kane Crawford who has a wonderful command of the stage (and he has clearly got moves – I wish we could have seen more of them!) Chris Breistein also deserves special mention as he gave a great performance in the role of Zack’s drunken father, Byron, on our press night - bravo.
Of course, at the end of the day, it’s that ‘Up Where We Belong’ moment that the audience is really waiting for and it’s only fair to say that, when it came to the final scene – they absolutely nailed it. Swelling music, brilliant white naval uniform, Paula swept off her feet and her factory pals cheering her on. It was a much-needed ‘lift’ on so many levels.
And so we are back to the main issue.
When you think of An Officer and a Gentleman, you probably think of that moment alone, but the actual story is tonally very different and arguably too understated to work in this way. It takes time to build a relationship with these characters, even more to understand the history and be on their side. Throwing in Bon Jovi and Cyndi Lauper doesn’t help, it hinders.
It doesn’t work here, anyway.
I should add for balance that there were a few ladies in the audience who gave it a standing ovation at the end - though that may have been more for the uniform than the show as a whole…
An Officer and a Gentleman is at Ipswich Regent Theatre until September 14.
FOR FULL SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE