The Breakfast Club (RIP John Hughes)

It was a great moment. The two men and two women were frozen in time as the lights came up on a third man who broke away from them to deliver the his final monologue to the audience. On que, they all say their one word which will help to wrap up this show. The the third man slowly comes to the end of his speech and the lights begin to fade.

“Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”

The end of an an absolutely astounding new piece of theatre.

Except it hasn’t happened….yet.

With the passing of John Hughes, I started thinking about his movies and how they basically defined a generations of teenagers. I don’t really think there is anyone out there who doesn’t think of Andie Walsh, Duckie, Long Duck Dong or Jake Ryan when they think of the 1980′s (points if you can name the actors and movies).

These characters are all creations of John Hughes. Somehow, he tapped into the collective conscious of adolescence and was able to push that consciousness into the world in a way that has never been duplicated since (I would argue, though, that Cameron Crowe came close with Fast Times at Ridgemont High as did Joss Whedon with Buffy, The Vampire Slayer). That push came to an apex with his release of The Breakfast Club in 1985.

The Breakfast Club, if you have been leaving under a rock for the last 25 years, is about 5 teenagers who are stuck in detention for an entire Saturday to atone for various acts of rebellion they caused. Their jailer is their overbearing principal, who life choices have led him down a path where he has to give up his Saturday to babysit. Through the course of the day, these five people beat the system, rebel against their captor, and learn that perhaps they aren’t as different than they thought.

What is great about The Breakfast Club is that it is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. In 1985, there were millions of 16 year olds who sat in a movie theater, watched this movie, and instantly recognized themselves on the screen (and most likely recognized most of their classmates as well). Those 16 year olds grew up to have 16 years of their own and those kids also recognized themselves in the movie (although I’d be willing to bet a lot of them see themselves differently than their parents did).

The appeal of this movie is that these characters have always existed and will always exist. The movie will always work as a frozen moment in time that almost every adolescent will see themselves in somewhere in.

One of the things which makes the movie work is a tiny band of characters who are literally locked in one location. The library is acts as both a jail and psychiatrist’s office and the events which happen there have the potential to change these characters lives (whether they actually do or not is a topic of debate. Are all of these people friends now? Are they secret friends? Are the pressures of high school to great that they have to go back to the way things were? Who knows.) This is also the thing which will make this movie work on stage.

7 Actors, One Set, lots of easy dialogue, and characters which represent 90% of people see themselves in is a great equation for a really good play. However, The Breakfast Club is not officially a play (I know there have been staged versions of the show, but as far as I can tell, they were not granted the rights to perform it). Personally, I would love to explore these characters as a director. I think they have a life to them that transcends the screen. To see this story on stage, done with a cast who really cares about the material would be an orgasmic night of theater.

Perhaps now, with all this nostalgia about John Hughes and contribution to cinema, someone will realize the theatrical gem this movie is and adapt it for the stage. It’s time for a new generation to see this movie in a whole new way.