Theater Review: Shadowbox Pays Tribute to the '80s With 'Vinyl'

Jun 11, 2023

Shadowbox combines its traditions of original musicals and crowd-pleasing musical nostalgia with a love letter to the music of the 1980s and communities that grew up around record stores with Vinyl, a jukebox musical with a book by Jimmy Mak, directed by Julie Klein, and choreographed by Katy Psenicka.

Vinyl works best as a showcase for a powerhouse performance by Stacie Boord as Rikki, owner of Rikki’s All-American Vinyl near the Georgetown University campus in 1986, as the owner of a music Megastore, Jerry (Tom Cardinal), eyes her location for acquisition.

Everything Boord tears into here, she leaves an indelible mark, sliding from the longing of A-Ha’s “Take on Me” to the spiky defiance of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation,” from a jaw-dropping first act closer of the wrenching drama of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” to a remarkable “Lean on Me” in duet with Leah Haviland as Rikki’s returned lover Lisa that slides smoothly from an arrangement that echoes the Bill Withers’ original into the ubiquitous Club Nouveau cover from the period of the musical.

And, as always, the band led by Matthew Hahn, also on guitar alongside Jack Wallbridge, with Buzz Crisafulli on bass, JT Walker III on keys, and Brandon Smith on drums, adeptly conjure the details of the original arrangements the audience can hang onto while also giving them enough room to breathe.

The other characters we get some time to know also make the most of their songs. Nyla Nyamweya, a charming presence as Rikki’s long-time friend and fellow employee of the store Samantha, delights with an exuberant take on Janet Jackson’s “Nasty,” and a lush “Head Over Heels” alongside a lovely turn from Robbie Nance as Sam’s would-be love interest. Haviland’s solo feature on Crowded House’s glittering heartbreak from across the void “Don’t Dream It’s Over” shines.

Cardinal has an infectious good time with the sleazy businessman Jerry; his character understands exactly the life of leisure, the way out of struggle he’s offering the small business owners he buys out. And he delights in the game of resistance and coercion, emphasized in his louche, knives-out take on Robbie Nevill’s “C’est La Vie” and an interesting choreography choice from Psenicka where Cardinal lurks in the background, both during most of Boord’s kiss-off “Bad Reputation” and much of his own song. His full-center-stage roar through “Hungry Like the Wolf” has exactly the right serrated edge of desperation fraying the intense confidence.

The songs that serve more as a setting for the time and place also come off very well. Gordon Perkins with Ash Davis, Haley Keller and Brianna Romer, perfectly sets the tone of the shifting world with a grinning, crackling take on Bowie’s “Modern Love” to start the second act – and the Stevie Ray Vaughan-recalling hat on the guitarist taking the solo was a nice touch. A boisterous “No Sleep Til Brooklyn,” courtesy of Keith Queener Jr, Gordon Perkins and Riley Mak, is exactly the burst of youthful energy the show needs to leaven the heavy cynicism of the main characters. Splitting the difference, Andy Ankrom’s lovably goofy metal-head Murray delivers a fire-breathing version of Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” with the right amount of grin, and a bursting-at-the-seams restatement of the themes as he leads the cast on a reprise of “Take on Me.”

The book scenes aren’t as good as the songs, but it would be hard for any new material to live up to the art which the audience grew up loving, songs lots of the audience the afternoon I saw this know better than they knew their first love. The first act suffers from those book scenes running way too long – the two-and-a-half hours of the performance (with one intermission) definitely felt every bit of its length.

The second act improves that balance immensely, but the television inserts (video design is by David Whitehouse and Zach Tarantelli) take up more space and make less and less sense. I really enjoyed the MTV expansion parodies, with the cast playing the music stars who originally beckoned kids to call their cable company and say, “I want my MTV,” and they have a nice thematic weight as MTV led to a record-buying boom but also an era of homogeneity in the charts, especially in the period this is set, four to five years after the channel’s debut. But the other pop culture references, especially late in the show, just feel like they’re chewing up time.

If you have love for the music that burned up the charts in the ’80s, Vinyl will leave you extremely satisfied, those qualms aside.

Vinyl runs through September 3 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets and more info, visit shadowboxlive.org/events/vinyl.