Do you remember Pat Benatar singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”?
How about Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” or Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love”?
Those are just a few songs you might recall from the 1980s, and Tieisha Thomas believes audience members will enjoy hearing them again if they attend a performance of the touring show “Mystic Pizza,” which Broadway in Scranton is bringing to the Scranton Cultural Center at Masonic Temple Oct. 23-25.
“For a lot of people, you’re going back to your youth,” Thomas said in a telephone interview from Erie, where the touring show played earlier this week. “The music says so much. The clothes say so much.”
“Maybe you got your first kiss, or you made a major decision about how your life is going to pan out,” she continued. “It’s so nostalgic. By the end, we usually have audience members standing up and clapping along with us.’
Thomas has the role of Leona, owner of the little pizza shop in Mystic, Conn., where three young women — Kat, Daisy and Jojo — work for her. They are her employees, but she’s more than a boss.
“Leona doesn’t have children, so I think she looks at them as her babies, her kids. She doesn’t tell them what to do; she doesn’t have to pester them, but she knows her position in their lives is so important, so vital. She knows they’ll listen to her.”
The young women probably can use some advice, as Daisy wonders if her wealthy boyfriend, Charles, is using her, a young woman from the working class, to rebel against his parents; studious Kat, who wants to go to Yale University, becomes entangled in an affair with a married architect; and free-spirited Jojo panics on her wedding day and runs away from the ceremony.
“Daisy and Kat are siblings, and they’re so different,” Thomas said. “Kat is all about her books. She’s got a scholarship to Yale … but she’s a little behind as far as relationships. Daisy has been there, done that. She’s a beautiful woman, and society sees that but might not see the person behind it.”
“Jojo, who is not a sibling, has a long-standing relationship with her sweetheart. They’ve dated each other since kindergarten, and everyone expects them (to get married). So, do you follow society’s expectations, or do you go after what you want? She wants independence, too.”
“Leona takes care of everyone’s emotional needs,” Thomas said, adding with a laugh, “and she keeps the pizza place running.”
Has Thomas ever made pizza herself, in real life?
No way. “It has to come out of a box,” she said, laughing again.
The stage musical “Mystic Pizza” is based on the 1988 movie of the same name that launched Julia Roberts’ career. It’s packed with songs from the 1980s and 1990s, which Thomas described as “flowing beautifully along with the text.” Choreography is by Jennifer Werner, who also choreographed “The Book of Mormon.”
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24, and 1 p.m. Oct. 25, at the Scranton Cultural Center, North Washington Avenue, Scranton. Tickets are available at BroadwayInScranton.com and in person at the Scranton Cultural Center box office.
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