8/4/2021
Education and Outreach
Musical ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ Packs in ‘80s Hits with Athletic Feats
All-new musical “An Officer and a Gentleman” looked nearly ready to launch its national tour in early 2020.
Then the pandemic shut the production down.
“On the one hand, it was really difficult,” says Producer Stephen Gabriel. “But then there was a terrific positive.”
The lockdown allowed the show’s creators to completely rework the production, he explains.
The creative team and cast rented out a Cleveland hotel, created their own quarantined “bubble” and underwent weeks of workshopping the show.
The 30-person group began each day with an hour of Navy boot camp calisthenics — Gabriel included — followed with a “tremendous amount” of rewrites and swapping out songs.
“It made leaps and bounds from what we originally had,” he says. “It was so great for the show.”
This uplifting story about a Naval officer candidate overcoming adversity and falling for a woman striving to improve her life comes packed with beloved music from the ‘80s — as well as dashes of the ‘70s and ‘90s. These include hits by Pat Benatar, Steve Winwood, Styx, Rick Springfield, Wilson Phillips and more.
“People should go see the show because one, they want to relive something they love from the past, and two, they will be surprised by how relevant it is for today,” Gabriel says.
An Updated Story
While the show sparks nostalgia for the 1982 film starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger, the movie’s fans will enjoy a lot of surprises.
And the musical will feel fresh and timely for those new to the story.
The show’s creative team placed priority on updating the story, explains Writer and Director Dick Scanlan, especially the portrayal of women as more empowered.
“Since 1982, the world has changed and our political perspectives are different,” Scanlan says. “We’ve really rethought the young women in the story.”
The musical also takes on a new theme of addressing racism, with a biracial couple and a character portrayed as the son of the Navy’s first Black admiral.
The show’s creators actually visited a Naval officer candidate school for research, Scanlan adds, and they strived for the musical to convey officer candidates’ stunning intelligence and selflessness.
“After that (visit), I wanted to create a show where every member of the audience feels connected to patriotism at the end of it, regardless of their political beliefs,” Scanlan says.
Storytelling Through ‘80s Hits
Raised on MTV, Music Supervisor, Arranger and Orchestrator Dan Lipton embraced choosing hit ‘80s tunes for the musical’s score.
He carefully picked songs to make audiences dance, but that also help portray the dramatic story.
“A main goal of ours was to make the song choices good enough so they don’t feel shoehorned, like they feel written for the show,” Lipton says.
The show’s song list looks promising.
On top of the No. 1 hit “Up Where We Belong” from the film, the musical includes smash hits like “Renegade” by Styx, “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood, “Lost in Your Eyes” by Debbie Gibson, “Venus” by Bananarama, “Love Is a Battlefield” by Pat Benatar, as well as iconic songs by Rick Springfield, Corey Hart, Wilson Phillips and Melissa Ethridge.
A flashback scene even includes ‘70s tunes from bands like Rush.
Lipton strived to find songs that would appeal to those who remember the ‘80s… And the three generations of people who don’t.
“I hope that if people know the songs, they love how we’ve used them, and I hope if they don’t know the songs, then they just found a whole cache of favorite new tunes,” Lipton says. “Then I think we’ve succeeded.”
A Physical and Musical Challenge
“An Officer and a Gentleman” also packs in athletic feats on stage.
Wes Williams, starring as officer candidate Zach Mayo, applied his skills as a personal trainer to the choreography that incorporates real Naval calisthenics.
“It’s crazy because musical theater is already so strenuous — you’re singing and dancing for two and a half hours, and you’re doing it eight shows a week,” Williams says. “But when you add in all these physical feats like jumping jacks and pushups and climbing a 12-and-a-half-foot wall, it makes it that much more insane for the audience watching.”
After such a long hiatus from theater, audiences will enjoy a show that feels so “alive,” he adds.
When the pandemic shut down the theater industry for so long, Williams had seriously rethought his career choice before unexpectedly landing this role, he notes.
This emotional roller coaster parallels what so many experienced over the past year and a half.
“There’s a theme in this show: how much life can change in 12 weeks,” Williams says. “I could not relate to that more.”