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07/30/2019 12:00 AMIt will be, like, totally ’80s when the Madison Beach Club welcomes the public to view Flashdance Follies, the theme for its 83rd song-and-dance review on the shoreline on Friday, Aug. 3 at 7:30 p.m., at the club, 128 Island Avenue, Madison
“The 1980’s will forever be defined by MTV,” said follies Music Director Matt Harrison. “The 24/7 music videos brought pop music—as well as the look and the culture—into to everyone’s living room.”
And that’s the point, said follies Chair Jennifer Wenderoth-Holster.
“For this year’s follies, the audience will know these songs, so we expect a rowdy sing-along,” she said, adding that audience members should come prepared to sing out “Billy Jean,” “Eye of the Tiger,” and Toto’s “Africa,” among other ’80s classics.
But just so the audience doesn’t run away with the show, choreographer Tiffany Wilson is putting the cast through the ’80s dance paces, to the beat of the era’s rock and techno-pop.
Clearly Harrison, Wilson, and Holster had to research the time period, since none of the show’s creators was even born when the movie, Flashdance, dominated the box office.
“We will definitely pay homage to the decade that not only brought us big hair, it was also the decade Izod shirts and Topsider boat shoes went mainstream. Who knew the beach club was already decades ahead of that fashion curve?” said Harrison.
Fifth-generation beach club member Teddy Crowther, 14, is getting his first taste of the enduring Follies tradition.
“The theme is really cool this year, and I know the audience is going to like it,” he said.
But like most of the 42 cast members, he knows that the weeks of rehearsal leading up to the big show are part of what he and the others will remember most, when it’s all over.
“Just hanging out with the cast, that’s what I’ll remember most,” said Crowther.
Like all the 83 follies performances that have gone before, the beach club’s kick line tradition lives on. This year the cast will be high stepping not to a Broadway tune but to the beat of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”
Members of the public can purchase tickets at the club front desk in advance or in the hours before the show on Friday, Aug. 2. There will be another performance, for members only, on Saturday, Aug. 3.
A portion of the proceeds goes to local charities via The Madison Foundation.