Search and Destroy @ Balagan Theatre: the '80s are STILL a Bitch

Fuck the '80s. Seriously, one more Mo Rocca VH1 show, one more special dance night, one more themed party, one more fashion comeback from anything hailing from the years between 1980 and 1989, and we're going to lose it. We were there; it sucked. That said, if you're going to throw a play in the basement of La Spiga/Boom Noodle that has an affiliation to the 1980s, you can do worse than to bookend it with the hair metal that was so justly put to the sword in the early Nineties, but at the time rocked. Balagan Theatre's current production of Search and Destroy takes every opportunity--before, after, during set changes, complete with high-kicking silouettes--to slip you some Whitesnake, GnR, Bon Jovi. The soundtrack is worth the price of admission alone.

The lead, Gabe Frankin as Hesher-with-a-Heart-of-Gold Martin Mirkheim is pretty great too. Mirkheim is a hard-rocking business type with an unwavering commitment to a dream and--we are shown throughout--a somewhat more malleable approach to realizing it. Martin's a lot of fun, even when things aren't going so well for him. Watch in horror as his life implodes on stage! See him despair, shout, beg, sweat, cry, and blast through rock bottom like a bunker buster! It's a great time! Even when things devolve into Scarface-ian drug deal cliche, the enormity of Martin's collapse and the competence of the supporting cast keep things interesting.

Greed, gurus, drugs, dreams; hallmarks of the '80s, yes. It's not like those aren't also defining characteristics of present-day America as well, so it seems a bit weird that this play needs to be so emphatically set in the past. It is as good a reason as any to crank up "Fire Woman" in the basement one more time, however, and unlike most of the '80s rehashes we see, Search and Destroy has a dramatic payload worth a few thoughts after the performance.

Search and Destroy runs through September 13 at Balagan Theatre.