Fred Landau and Skip Kennon have come to your rescue, with a musical version of the fondly remembered sci-fi flick “The Last Starfighter,” now at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. And it’s light-years better than you’d ever expect.
For those readers who weren’t 10-year-old boys in 1984, some background is necessary. “The Last Starfighter,” was more or less a rip-off of “Star Wars” (only a boy from the sticks has the skills to save the galaxy), but with one crucial addition: This hero, Alex, proves himself worthy not by having the Force but by setting the high score on an arcade game. It’s a concept that’s rooted as deeply in the ’80s as Duran Duran and Cabbage Patch Kids.
But the movie isn’t without its charms, and astonishingly, Kennon and Landau bring those charms to life in their adaptation, with zippy direction supplied by Elizabeth Lucas. They hold onto the flick’s gee-whiz enthusiasm for video games and outer space, and avoid reducing the era to a smug overview of cultural references. They turn a subplot involving a robot duplicate of the hero into a madcap case of mistaken identity. And they revel without condescension in the film’s goofy sci-fi terminology, using an alien’s name—“Zandozan”—as the hook for a mean showstopper, complete with a kick-line.
The musical’s big surprise in is Kennon’s music, which offers more catchy, memorable songs than many Broadway productions. There’s only one outright clunker: a generic tune about love, advice from the trailer park’s women to Alex’s girlfriend. But this girl, Nora Blackall, stands out from the cast as a real talent, despite being almost as young as her teenage character. With her warm, resonant voice, she turns a colorless ingénue role into an emotionally vulnerable performance.
None of the other leads, however, quite match Blackall’s work. As Alex, Danny Binstock is competent but undistinguished. More egregious is Joseph Kolinski as the alien who recruits him. This role was played in the film by Robert Preston as a reprise of his slick-talking “Music Man.” Kolinski, on the other hand, phones his performance in from somewhere around Mars. It’s a squandered opportunity.
But that’s a minor problem in a fun show. “The Last Starfighter,” comes across as a sort of valentine from the creators to their pre-teen selves. And most of the cast seems to be having a lark onstage. The low budget doesn’t stop the company from bringing us an alien armada or a dogfight in an asteroid field (special mention must go to Herrick Goldman’s lighting and Elizabeth Rhodes’ sound design). “The Last Starfighter,” is a quirky, humble show that won’t win any awards, but it refreshes happy memories of childhood.
"The Last Starfighter" runs through October 7 at The Theater at St. Clements (423 W. 46th St., between Ninth and Tenth Aves.) Tickets and full schedule
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