Spandex and side-ponytails reigned supreme at the Horton Grand Theatre in downtown San Diego this weekend — and not just on the stage. Audience members sported 1980s scrunchies and legwarmers as they mingled in the lobby, complimenting each other on the brightest shade of neon.
Inside the theatre, a feeling of familiarity permeated, and not just because everyone had loved and lived through the ’80s. The show, MIXTAPE, has the distinction of being San Diego’s longest-running homegrown music. One member of the cast, Joy Yandell, performed the same character in the previous Lamb’s Players production from 2010-2013. Everyone was ready to hop into the proverbial DeLorean and go back in time.
MIXTAPE isn’t as much a theatre performance as a celebration — an electric, old-school, music-fueled one. In the first scene, the seven characters are frazzled, late for work, tied to their phones in modern-day America. Then, magically they are transported back to the 1980s and given a chance to remember and relive their high school and young adulthood, with all its music and cultural phenomenons, too.
When the cast burst into songs like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Jessie’s Girl,” the entire audience sang along, pumping fists in the air and dancing in their seats. The characters were reliving the ’80s, playing at being the musicians they had idolized on MTV when they were kids, and the atmosphere in the room felt more like a rock concert than a staid theatre production. The clever, lightning-fast references to classic video arcade games, The Breakfast Club, and walking like an Egyptian, among many other ’80s memories, brought bursts of thrilled applause.
With a simple stage elegantly conceived and executed, the set is classic Lamb’s. The focus of MIXTAPE is music, and so the metal walkways, open dance floor, and neon tube lights allowed the stage to transform seamlessly from a high school prom to the set of Top Gun to Journey’s stage for “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
Each member of the small cast expanded into the full limits of their role, busting out dance moves and dialogue with believable heart and enthusiasm. Their voices were all equally compelling as well, even though the outward appearance — such as Geno Carr’s perfectly nerdy glasses and balding pate — belied his ability to belt out “Love Shack.”
Like many Lamb’s productions, MIXTAPE included a live band tucked inconspicuously into the set, able to leap into the performance to play an extra character or perform an electric guitar solo for “I Want My MTV.” The occasional use of TV screens covering the back wall of the stage added another dimension to the production, especially for more somber moments like remembering the Challenger tragedy and the AIDS quilt.
Once again, Lamb’s connects with what its audience holds dear — in this case, music and culture that define an era of our lives — but in such a way that makes us tap our feet, pump our fists, and sing right along. Gather your friends and go remember the first mixtapes you ever made!
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All photos used with permission of Lamb’s Players Theatre.
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Where: The Horton Grand Theatre, 444 Fourth Ave (between Island and J St) in the Gaslamp District of San Diego
When: Thru September 27th, Wed & Thurs at 7:30pm / Fri at 8 / Sat at 4 & 8 / Sun at 2
Tickets: Purchase here / Discounts for Youth, Active Military, and Adults Under 35
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Becca Garber
Staff Writer
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