It’s ‘80s-tastic at St Pat’s Hall Strabane

Get out your leg warmers and spandex, dust off your Boss colour changing tee-shirts and prepare that Flock of Seagulls hairstyle because Strabane is going Back to the ‘80s next week in St Pat’s Hall. A little-known musical, Back to the ‘80s is a jukebox musical which originated in Australia in 2000 celebrating everything from that decade of excess, synth pop and wacky clothes.

Class Act Theatre Group, none of whom are ‘80s children I might add, are taking on the task of bringing the decade to life. Describing the show to the uninitiated director Leah McCay says, “Back To The ‘80s could be the plot to a rom com of the decade. Set in a high school it tells the story of Corey who is in love with his best friend Tiffany, but she doesn’t know. Only problem for Corey is, Tiffany is in love with the ‘most popular boy in school’ Michael. The story goes throughout the school year, ending up at prom, with plenty of laughs, love and music of the decade.”

The show was originally supposed to tread the boards this summer, but was postponed and will run over three days next week. Leah says that the group have adapted well to the schedule change.

“They’ve been brilliant. Obviously, it was a setback not being able to do the show in the summer, and we took a while off rehearsals, getting back into it once the school year began again. Luckily there were no issues with the hiatus; this group of very talented young people are excellent at what they do and are extremely dedicated so they just slipped seamlessly back into things.

“We’ve been flat out rehearsing. It’s our first big senior show, with over 100 people in the cast which, as you can imagine, is hard to corral. That said, we’re good to go and we’ll do it no problem. I believe in the cast and they believe in themselves.”

A musical trip through the decade includes songs from the likes of Michael Jackson, Peter Cetera, Survivor, Bon Jovi, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and many more which should keep the audience’s toes tapping and bring back many a memory of their younger years. Leah said that she wasn’t worried about the cast not knowing any of the tunes as they’ve become so engrained in the public consciousness that there’s no doubt the younger cast would have heard of them at least.

“With the talent we have on the stage, the students really do it justice. They’ve been working tirelessly on the show and are really making something special. I can’t wait for the audience to see how great they are.

“We have a wonderful musical director in Ryan Quinn and performance director in Emmett Stewart alongside me.

“Between the three of us and the cast, it’s going to be another wonderful production!”

l The show will run from the 3rd-5th of November in St Pat’s Hall and tickets are priced at £10