By TR Robertson
The historic Sunshine Brooks Theater in downtown Oceanside, the home of the Oceanside Theatre Company, is now featuring the West Coast Premiere of “Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical”, which takes the audience through a fast-paced, inter-active, and hilarious adventure trip with a group of young people and their friends, living in the quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980’s. The town is unaware that the large facility on the outskirts of their town is actually covering up secret underground rooms and passageways where diabolical experiments on children is going on and connections to an interdimensional world connected to bizarre creatures that was established. It is only when townspeople’s children go missing that a “brave” group of young people set out to find out what the heck is going on.
It is this premise that the popular Netflix series, “Stranger Things” was established and appeared with the first episode on July 15, 2016. Interestingly enough the shows premise is loosely based on the conspiracy theory surrounding the Montauk Project, at the Montauk Air Force Base in New York in the 1980’s, where experiments were supposedly conducted on individuals involving time travel, mind control and contact with aliens from outer space. There is also a touch of remembrance to the 1985 movie, “Goonies”, that made “Stranger Things” a very popular show running for four seasons until 2022, with talk of a final fifth season in 2025.
“Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical” puts a fun-filled, non-stop, musical twist on the “Stranger Things” story, using over-the-top personalities, silly relationship issues, a dancing Demogorgon, a Muppet-like creation of one of the missing kids, to create what could be considered an almost “Saturday Night Live” 2-hour musical skit of its upside-down supernatural world for the stage. “Stranger Sings” is from a book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Hogue. It first ran from September 2022 to May 2023, Off-Broadway at the Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s Theatre in New York. It won seven Broadway World Off-Broadway Awards including Best New Musical, Best Costume Design, Best Scenic Design, Best Sound Design, Best Choreography and Best Performance in a Musical. The parody also was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards, Outstanding Lyrics, Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Scenic Design.
The Oceanside Theatre Company production is the West Coast Premiere of the musical and it is clear the cast members chosen for the show are having a great time on stage, spoofing the original show. You do not have to know anything about “Stranger Things” to enjoy the parody, but it does help a little. A few audience members are allowed to sit on either side of the stage and actually become a part of the performance, prompted by members of the cast. All eight members of the cast have great voices, but one cast members especially stands out and received a rousing ovation when she took the stage for closing recognition. This cast member is Priya Richard who played Barb and others. As Barb, she is the tag-along, best friend of Nancy, always pushed behind the scenes, who ends up as one of the missing kids, but is almost forgotten about. Her solo number, “Barb’s Turn” in Act II, had many on their feet in loud applause.
The other cast members included Natasha Gomez as both Joyce, mother of the missing Will and as Will, represented by a hand puppet. Natasha did a masterful job of representing both characters. Playing the three main young people who search for missing friends and who try to solve the mystery surrounding their disappearance, were Dylan August as Mike, Sophie LaRosh as Dustin and Allyce Calloway as Lucas. Each of them rose to the challenge of portraying 12–13-year-olds from the 80’s. The each also played a number of other characters. Allyce Calloway also played the dancing Demogorgon. Tommy Tran played Steve, Jonathan and Dr. Brenner. Tirzah played Nancy, Robin and the mysterious Eleven. Fredy Gomez Cruz played Sheriff Hopper and others.
“Stranger Sings” is directed by Oceanside Theatre Company Artisitc Director Kevin “Blax” Burroughs. His Creative Team included Eliza Vedar – Musical Director and Conductor of the “Stranger Sings” Band, Choreographer Alyssa Junious, Stage Manager Ali Flores, Assistant Stage Manager Tori Jones, Scenic Designer Reiko Huffman, Costume Designer Zoe Trautmann, Lighting Designer Mashun Tucker, Sound Designer Estefania Ricalde, Sound Mixer Jordan Gray, Sound Mixer & Technical Director Geronimo Omabtang, Props and Set Dressing Nate Cargill, Wig Designer Jeri Nicolas, Puppet Designer and Builder Jordan Brownlee and Puppet Costume designer Maribel Garcia. The other members of the “Stranger Sings” Band included Andrew Snyder, Kyra Recabaren and Lauren Sleeper who along with conductor Eliza Vedar produced a great sound, playing almost continually for the entire performance.
“Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical” will be on stage at the Sunshine Brooks Theater at 217 N. coast Highway until October 20th. For reservations call 760-433-8900 or go to www.oceansidetheatre.org.
