TCA’s dinner theater promises plenty of 1980s fun

More than “a little ditty,” the TCA’s upcoming dinner theater production of “Jack and Diane” promises to be a “full immersion into the 1980s,” according to TCA Director Amy Slupe.

“It will be epic,” Slupe said. “It’s an immersive, completely interactive, improvisational ‘80s wedding reception dinner theater experience. In fact, it will have every ‘Valley Girl’ thing you can think of.”

The event is set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 13 at the A.J. Smith Rec Center. On Monday night, city council gave the green light for a special permit to allow adult beverages to be served for the occasion and 3 Dudes will be catering the event. The $80 ticket price includes a four-course gourmet meal. Tickets need to be purchased by March 29, Slupe said.

“Jack and Diane,” taken from the hit song by John Mellencamp, known as “John Cougar” in 1982 when he recorded the tune, centers around a young woman who is seriously injured in a catastrophic car crash in 1986. The crash takes place on the eve of the young woman’s wedding and she awakes from a coma 38 years later, thinking it’s still 1986 and she’s going to be married, Slupe said. The play was written by Chris Sancho of Adrian, she said. Sancho will join Eric Parker, Erin Miller-Pifer, Michelle Hillner-Doerfler, Kara Salenbien, Nathan Kane, Connor Raymond, and Nate Adams.

“Chris wrote it 13 years ago, when ‘Tony and Tina’s Wedding’ was popular,” Slupe said. “She had a great idea for this fantastic twist on the John Mellencamp song.”

The cast has an outline of things that must happen, but they will have plenty of freedom to “play with it however they want,” she said.

“There will be audience participation,” Slupe said. “If you aren’t into audience participation, don’t worry — no one will pick on you, but if you are into it, there are lots of opportunities to be involved.”

Slupe said Vision Performance Group and Technologies are providing all the sound and lighting as well as a “video wall,” which allows music videos to be played during the event.

“We’ll also have a ‘TCA Tavern’ open for drinks,” she said. “We will have the MTV ‘Moon Man’ circulating for those who want a photo with him, and there will be a Pacman display. It will be stupid epic. It’s every classic eighties song you love.”

Slupe said tickets sales are “flying.

“We have very limited seating  and we’re already nearly there in terms of being sold out,” she said. “If you are interested, you need to act fast.”

She is excited to be staging this show.

“You’re getting four-course dinner,  the show, the eighties experience, it’s going to be incredible,” she said.  “The pandemic was hard and stressful and it has lingered, whether people realize it or not. It’s healthy to come out and just have fun. It’s part of what the arts do — uplift the joyfulness of our spirits. Everyone needs it for their souls.”