Line #46 Theatre/BackToTheEighties


1	''Back to the Eighties'' is a strange variation on the JukeboxMusical by Neil Gooding where instead of using all songs from one band, only songs from one decade ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the 80s]]) are used. The musical focuses on the senior year of fictional American high school William Ocean High, particularly an uncool kid named Corey Palmer with a crush on popular girl Tiffany Houston, a hatred of popular guy Michael Feldman and rather unfair feelings of superiority towards loveable nerd Feargal [=McFerrin=] III.
2
3	The show is subtitled "The Totally Awesome Musical", and it doesn't really get any less cheesy from that point on...
4	----
5	!This work provides examples of:
6	* AlphaBitch: Cyndi.
7	* AmbiguouslyGay: Alf Bueller is described as "destined to remain a bachelor" and also blows Corey a kiss at one point. The ambiguity is arguably because Alf is just so ''weird'' that that might be what's keeping him single.
8	* BSODSong: "Centerfold", for Mr Cocker; per the script directions, it verges on a SanitySlippageSong. "You Give Love A Bad Name (Reprise)" to a lesser extent.
9	* ButtMonkey: Feargal, initially.
10	* TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight: Feargal kept spotting out theories that the internet would one day reinvent the world, and come present day, he was right.
11	* DecoyProtagonist: Corey Jnr., arguably. We know he grows into Corey Snr., but we don't see it happen; he remains a relatively unchanging FlatCharacter throughout the show. The true protagonists of the show are arguably Feargal and Mr Cocker; unlike pretty much everyone else, they experience actual CharacterDevelopment.
12	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Billy gets a whole scene of being rejected by Cyndi.
13	* DreamSequence: "Centerfold", for Mr Cocker. Weirdly handled in that it's bracketed by unambiguous reality and he doesn't fall asleep - it's more of a hallucination sequence.
14	* ExcusePlot: Basically. Very much a device to provide context for the music. The only plots that really develop are Mr Cocker/Miss Brannigan, and Feargal.
15	* FlashBack: The entire show is basically a series of flashbacks had by the narrator, Corey Palmer Snr.
16	* HeroicBSOD: Mr Cocker does not take the revelation of Miss Brannigan's modelling career well.
17	* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Mr Miyagi, the Japanese teacher/Martial Arts instructor. Although we do hear his voice, once.
18	* HigherSelf: The show is narrated by Corey Palmer's older self ("Corey Snr" in the script).
19	* HotTeacher: Miss Brannigan. Her plot with Mr Cocker revolves around the fact that she was a model a decade and a half before.
20	* InformedFlaw: "Feargal was the kind of guy who could bring feelings of happiness and laughter to a room simply by leaving it."
21	* JerkJock: Michael Feldman. An oddly dark variation - you can see that below the surface, Michael is a genuinely bad person.
22	* JukeboxMusical: sort of.
23	* LargeHam: Mr Cocker, through the second act.
24	* LemonyNarrator: Corey Snr. is not above mocking his younger self and his ex-classmates in his narrations.
25	* LoveTriangle: Corey and Michael both have a crush on Tiffany.
26	* ManChild: Mr Cocker has this going on; he's one of the more naive, less worldly people in the show.
27	* MinoredInAssKicking: Feargal, almost literally - he takes extra-curricular martial arts lessons.
28	* MusicalThemeNaming: ''Everyone''.
29	* PresentDayPast: Depending on the production, this can seep in with Corey Snr. His scenes are often played as modern-day, but he's a thirtyish guy who went to high school in the late 1980s - he can't be much later than about 2000.
30	* ShoutOut: Oh boy. For starters, every single character (even ones we don't see on-stage) is named after a famous '80s personage. Then there are on-stage conversations about ''Series/TheATeam'', the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'', ''VideoGame/PacMan'', ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', etc. And some scenes are clearly an AffectionateParody of similar scenes from ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' and ''Film/TheKarateKid''.
31	%%* StereotypicalNerd: Corey Jnr. and co, and Feargal and co. Corey is a more relatable and realistic example; Feargal plays the stereotype to the hilt.
32	* SternTeacher: Mr Cocker, mostly.
33	* ThisLoserIsYou: The audience is clearly supposed to relate to Corey, despite his being very low down the high-school food-chain.
34	* ThoseTwoGuys: Alf and Kirk, Corey's best friends. Laura and Debbie could be seen as a female variant, as could Mel and Kim.
35	* VerbThis:
36	-->'''Feargal:''' These are not just hands; they are lethal defensive weapons!\
37	'''Michael:''' Oh yeah? Then defend ''this''!
38	* WaxingLyrical: Michael leaves fake love letters in Eileen's locker, all of which are made up of lines from famous songs put together.
39	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Corey Senior gives a brief word on what the cast is doing now in the present:
40	** Laura and Debbie are millionaires now. They started a dating agency after they graduated, which has became the biggest in the country.
41	** Eileen fell in love with Feargal after he defended her and they got married. Feargal's crazy predictions came true and he became rich for his contributions in creating the World Wide Web.
42	** Cyndi and Billy never happened. Cyndi went on to be a democrat politician, while Billy opened a chain of skating rinks across the state with Lionel and Huey. When skating went out of fashion, they replaced all the rinks with car parks.
43	** Mel and Kim married two identical twins from England named Matt and Luke Bros. They both have two sets of triplets and have made it into Guinness Book of Records.
44	** Micheal tried out for the pro football league, but a [[GroinAttack groin injury]] [[CareerEndingInjury forced him into early retirement]]. He has had two wives and four kids, and is now a Baptist Minister in New Orleans.
45	** Cocker and Brannigan were able to let bygones be bygones and walked down the aisle together. They still teach at Ocean High to this day, where Cocker is now the principal.
46	** Corey still hands out with his high school friends every now and then. Kirk has married a girl he met in Disneyland, while Alf [[ConfirmedBachelor seems destined to remain single to his grave]].
47	** Tiffany and Corey [[DidNotGetTheGirl never ended up together]]. In fact, Corey hadn't seen her for two years. He did see her get married in Chicago though. She has two daughters now, both the splitting image of her beauty.
48	** As for Corey, he's happy, healthy, and still single. He is seeing a fashion designer though, so he'll see how it goes.
49	* WomenAreWiser: While Mr Cocker is the more overt authority figure, Miss Brannigan is definitely the grown-up of the two.

Context Theatre / BackToTheEighties