Get out your best legwarmers, scrunchies and acid-washed jeans! It’s Totally 80s: Rad Retro Favourites at the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO), June 6 and 7.
Musical theatre performer Aaron C. Finley and vocalist/comedian Nicole Parker will join the ESO to bring the 80s back to glorious, neon-coloured life.
We reach Finley at home in Montclair, New Jersey a few hours before he heads to Manhattan to perform in Moulin Rouge on Broadway, his “day job” of the last six years.
He, Parker and conductor Stuart Chafetz have done the Totally 80s show with around 20 orchestras around the world, Finley says.
“It’s so much fun,” he says. “It’s the show I do that has the most wacky costume changes, the silliest props. It’s a fun, comical evening listening to your favourite 80s songs with the symphony. It’s fantastic.”
He says it’s like the high-energy, casual cousin of a formal evening at the symphony. “Let’s dress down and be super silly and rock out. We make it a really interactive and playful experience.”’
“It’s a really fun night, it becomes sort of a costume party which makes the whole evening that much more entertaining.”
Finley says he’s noticed a phenomenon when they play multiple nights with the same orchestra. The first night some musicians will dress up. “But when the orchestra sees what we’re doing – because Nicole and I are being so absurd and silly onstage – then the following night the upgrade in costumes that the orchestra has decided to go with is pretty remarkable. It progressively gets wilder as the weekend goes on.”
While Finley is holding the set list close to his chest, he promises that 80s fans will hear some of their favourite hits.
“Bring your friends who haven’t been to the symphony before. Bring the kids,” he says. “It’s such a fun night and a great introduction to what symphonies can do, in such a fun, whimsical way.”
Totally 80s: Rad Retro Favourites is on at Edmonton’s Winspear Centre June 6 and 7. Details here.
