An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical is a stage musical based on the 1982 film starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger. It’s a jukebox musical, featuring hit songs from the 1980s. It’s a fun show, but with some sad themes as well. Here’s my An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical theatre review.
Overview of An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical
An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical follows the same plot as the famous 1982 film. If you’ve seen the film you’ll already be familiar with the plot so my An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical theatre review won’t give any spoilers!
The film and the musical follow the story of Zack Mayo, as he joins the training programme to become a Navy officer. Here, he meets his fellow trainee recruits, including Sid. He also meets the strict leader, Sergeant Emil Foley. The training is tough, and there are multiple times where Zac, Sid and the others struggle with the ruthless training regime.
While on their weekend leave, Zack and Sid go to a local bar and meet some of the local girls. Zack starts a relationship with Paula, trying to keep things casual. But both start developing feelings for each other. Sid starts a relationship with Lynette, and their feelings for each other grow too.
The story continues with the ruthless Navy training and time spent in their couples. However, Sid is struggling with the training, and when Lynette thinks she is pregnant, Sid leaves the Navy so he can marry her. However, Lynette turns him down as she wants to marry a pilot. And when she learns she’s not actually pregnant, Sid is upset and – trigger warning – commits suicide.
Zack continues through the Navy training and continues to fight his growing feelings for Paula. However, when he successfully graduates from the Navy training programme, he goes to Paula. And there’s the famous, iconic, romantic end scene where he goes to the factory where Paula works, while wearing his Navy uniform, and sweeps her off her feet.
What I liked about An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical
I enjoyed the film An Officer and a Gentleman, and I also enjoyed An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical. I thought the story was portrayed well on stage. It was easy to follow the plot and the stories of the four main characters.
The songs were good as well. Although there weren’t any original songs in this musical (which I usually prefer), the songs were still good and fitted in well with the plot. The final song ‘Love lifts us up where we belong’ was my favourite song and favourite moment of the show. There were multiple teasers of this song throughout the show, where they’d play just a line or two, so all through the show the audience were building up to this final moment. It was done really well on stage. Zach appears at the top of the steps in his white Navy uniform, with the spotlight on him, and walks down to Paula. It was a lovely, romantic ending to the show. I also really liked the song ‘Alone’ that Paula sang, and also the ‘Man in Motion’ song during one of the Navy scenes.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I enjoyed this musical, but I didn’t think it was amazing. I felt like the stage and set were fairly basic. They didn’t really do anything clever on the stage. The musical also cut out one of the famous underwater Navy training scenes from the film – which I get would have been hard to do on stage, but they didn’t really even try to do much. The set worked well enough for the show, but there wasn’t anything innovative or interesting going on.
The acting was fairly good, although some of the American accents were very hard to understand at first. And Sid’s voice sounded exactly like Forrest Gump – and I wasn’t the only one who thought that, I heard that mentioned by several other audience members after the show.
The plot and themes
When I saw the film, I remember thinking that Sid’s suicide was a dark theme that didn’t fit in with a mostly romantic film. And in the musical, this dark theme felt even more out of place. So much of the musical was quite fun and light-hearted. So this moment felt even more jarring.
It’s not that I thought Sid’s and Lynette’s relationship needed to work out – it’s fine for a show like this to have some heartbreak. But having the suicide of a main character is a big theme. It felt like it came out of nowhere. It wasn’t long since the show was happy with the audience laughing and clapping along. And then after Sid’s body was carried off stage, the show got back to being happy quite quickly. It’s just a very dark theme to only very briefly cover in an otherwise generally happy and romantic show where the audience are often dancing along to the music.
Another part of the plot that I wasn’t so sure about is the theme of the women just waiting for the Navy men to ‘rescue’ them. The show tried to have some female empowerment songs. But a massive theme in the plot is that these girls work in the factory in jobs they don’t enjoy. And their main aim is to have one of the Navy officer trainees to fall in love with them so they can leave their life behind and follow their Navy husband.
This theme just felt a bit outdated for a modern audience. And I felt a bit uncomfortable sometimes seeing how desperate the women in the factory were to have a Navy husband. I understand that this is a big theme from the film. But I thought that the musical could have adapted this slightly more for a modern audience, so you didn’t get the sense that these women were just working a boring job and waiting for a man to sweep them off their feet so their life could begin.
Would I recommend An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical
If you enjoyed the film An Officer and a Gentleman, then I’d recommend you go to see An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical. It’s a good show that is generally well done. There’s some good songs, and of course the iconic ending to the song ‘Love lifts us up where we belong’ is lovely. I still have a few issues with the plot, and feel like the musical didn’t address these well. And the musical isn’t particularly innovative or impressive. But it’s still an enjoyable evening out at the theatre.
Hope you enjoyed my An Officer and a Gentleman – The Musical theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
