John Hughes musical tribute fails to deliver

There's good news and bad news about "For The Record: Dear John Hughes," the "theatrical concert" inspired by soundtracks from the late writer/director's 1980s teenage coming-of-age films.

The good news: It lasts only two hours.

The bad news: You'll never get those two hours back.

An all-inclusive ode to teenage angst, "Dear John Hughes," which opened Thursday at Chicago's Broadway Playhouse, mashes up songs and scenes drawn mostly from "Pretty in Pink" and the ever-resonating "The Breakfast Club" (the title refers to the final voice-over from the 30-year-old film in which nerdy Brian Johnson reads a letter the five detention-serving students penned to their vice principal). The show - which also features excerpts from "16 Candles," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Weird Science" - was conceived by director Anderson Davis, music director Christopher Lloyd Bratten and producer Shane Scheel. In 2009, the trio created "For The Record," a Los Angeles-based "cabaret series" that theatricalizes soundtracks from films by Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann.

That may pass for theater in Los Angeles, but the stakes are higher in Chicago. And this mediocre montage doesn't measure up, partly because it has no purpose, except to pick the pockets of nostalgic Generation X-ers.

What exactly did Hughes, who grew up in Northbrook, leave unsaid in his films, which did a pretty good job chronicling how upper middle-class suburban teens wrestled with friendship, love, sex and social status? Granted, this kind of production has sentimental appeal, especially musically, but not much else. It might have more appeal as a self-parody, a la "Rock of Ages," it's too earnest for that. Yet, its emotion is all facsimile; its characters are flat, fleeting and forgettable.

Davis' direction is perfunctory, and his decision to have the actors mingle with the audience is ill-suited to this large space, although I imagine it works well in the nightclubs where "For The Record" shows are typically staged.

Spencer Liff faithfully recreates and the cast ably performs the angst-ridden "We Are Not Alone" number from "Breakfast Club" and the "Thriller"-inspired moves from "Twist and Shout." However, his original choreography, with its arm flexes and pelvic thrusts, is the kind seldom seen outside an aerobics class.

As for the cast, it consists of seven attractive, energetic young performers backed by an onstage band led by Bratten. Among them is Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, who leaves the show Sunday for "Dancing with the Stars" (Evan Rachel Wood replaces her) and Joliet native Patrick Mulvey playing the thankless role of authority. Rounding out the cast are James Byous, Michael Thomas Grant, Olivia Harris, Payson Lewis and Jackie Seiden. Their forces are serviceable but unremarkable and, in the case of Harris, perpetually under pitch. In fairness, she was among several cast members plagued on opening night by microphone problems that made lyrics unintelligible.

But there were exceptions, including Seiden, who possesses the powerhouse pipes of a rock star, and a yeomanlike performance from the hardworking Mulvey. Also deserving mention is the talented, appealing Grant (The Brain) whose performances of "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Danke Schoen" are the production's best.

Joliet native helps bring John Hughes film scenes to the stage in 'For the Record'