Staples Players’ summer show is “Back to the ’80s.”
The jukebox musical — a mashup of plots like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Revenge of the Nerds” and “The Breakfast Club,” with songs like “Love Shack,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” plus bad hair and acid-washed jeans — is great entertainment.
Corey Palmer narrates the show, from 2019. He looks back on himself as a geeky boy in love with the girl next door, growing up and going to high school in 1984.
That’s the same year Players director David Roth graduated from Staples. So who better to play the narrator than Roth himself?
That’s one of the special twists audiences will enjoy when “Back to the ’80s” opens this Friday evening (July 12). Performances are also set for Saturday afternoon and evening, and a Sunday matinee.
Director David Roth with (from left) Georgia Wright and Sophie Rossman. When he’s not working with the actors, Roth joins them onstage. (Photo/Kerry Long)
“It’s a fun fit,” says Roth, making his first appearance on the Staples stage since graduating 35 years ago. Back in the day, he starred as the MC in “Cabaret,” and shows like “Pippin” and “I Do! I Do!” He also directed “Chicago,” and served as vice president of tech his senior year.
There have been plenty of technical advancements in the 3 1/2 decades since Roth was a student. He and co-director Kerry Long have taken Players — always one of the best high school drama troupes around — to the next, near-Broadway level.
But, Roth says, the essence of Players has not changed. “It’s still a group of people who come together to put on a show,” he says.
Remember “Love Shack”? These Staples Players dance to the B-52s’ song. (Photo/Kerry Long)
And who have tons of fun doing it. Rehearsal last week was filled with a great, talented cast of dozens — from rising freshmen to Players alum like Charlie Zuckerman (taking a year off from college, to audition) and Jill Gault (in her 2nd year of the Ithaca College acting program).
They sang and danced their way through “Material Girl,” “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Come On Eileen.”
All are ’80s songs from “Back to the ’80s.” None of the cast had been alive then, of course.
Except director/narrator David Roth.
Not to be confused with David Lee Roth.
(“Back to the ’80s” will be performed Friday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 13 at 3 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 14 at 3 p.m. Click here for tickets and more information.)
The very 80s-ish cast of Staples Players’ summer show. (Photo/Kerry Long)