Tiverton taken Back to the 80s by junior musical group

THE Tiverton Junior Operatic Club took the town Back to the 80s last week.

The plot revolved around Corey Palmer, who was played by two people. Daryl Cargill who played the senior character looking back at himself several years earlier as a younger Corey, played by Connor Van Bussel.

Corey Snr had the job of telling the audience what was going on and who was who. Once again Daryl’s talents stood out, and he will be missed by the club and the Tiverton stage when he leaves to go to drama school.

In the 1980s the 17-year old younger Corey had fallen in love with his next door neighbour Tiffany Houston played by Cassie Baker.

Connor took the role well as a loved up teen and leader in his gang of school friends - everyone was in gangs back in the 80s it seems. By the end he looked like he was having the time of his life when Tiffany had finally decided to get with him.

One of Tiffany’s best friends, Cyndi Gibson, was not getting involved as she was too materialistic, as proven when she gave a nice rendition of Material Girl.

Before Tiffany and Connor could get together though, Tiffany decided the one she loved – or lusted over – was the school’s cocky and most popular boy Michael Fieldman, played Luke Hayes-Middleton.

Cassie was believable as the typical silly schoolgirl who always chose the bad boys only to get hurt by them. She also gave some good dancing in the nightmare sequence.

Luke played a cool character that was always setting him up for a downfall. From the start, there were hints that the character wasn’t as cool as maybe Danny Zuko so it was no surprise he was beaten up by the stereotypical school nerd Feargal McFerrin III played by Joel Standford.

Joel brought most of the humour to the show and was applauded for his funny karate routine and somersaults. When he came onstage he was always animatedly nerdy as well as giving a good rendition of Video Killed the Radio Star.

Another reason for Michael’s downfall from being the hippest kid in class to being lame was for jokingly posting love letters in the locker of new girl Eileen Reagan. Although this part of the story was a bit silly at times with Eileen, played by Jess Roberts, supposedly falling in love with the mysterious note writer, Eileen was conveyed well as a somewhat ditzy character with a good voice as she sang I’m Walking on Sunshine.

Even the teachers couldn’t escape the wrath of Cupid and they too were falling in love. Julia Graham Hill as Ms Sheena Brannigan, and James France as Mr Stevie Crocker worked well together onstage. They went from being in love, to falling out – mainly due to Stevie being a prude – and then falling in love again in their rollercoaster relationship.

There were plenty of songs to get the foot tapping, and at some points the audience were singing along to their favourite hits of the 1980s so it was like listening in stereo. The band have done a good job in reminding everyone who was alive at the time why they miss 80s music, and this was helped by the harmonies and singing from the cast.