John Hughes’ movies inspire a cabaret for a new generation

The work of John Hughes, the film director (and Chicago native) who helped define the youth culture of the 1980s in such wildly popular movies as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” “Pretty In Pink,” “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” is being celebrated in a “new age’ cabaret-style show headed for its Chicago premiere at the Broadway Playhouse, 175 E. Chestnut, where it will play a limited engagement, March 5-15.

“For the Record Presents Dear John Hughes” — described as “a 360-degree immersive concert event that invites fans to spend an evening with a Brain, an Athlete, a Basket Case, a Princess and a Criminal” — has been created by Shane Scheel, Christopher Lloyd Bratten and Anderson Davis as part of the For the Record series, a project that “reinvents cabaret for a new generation.” Directed by Davis, it features choreography by Emmy Award winner Spencer Liff (“So You Think You Can Dance”), with music direction by Bratten. Produced by Siobhan O’Neill and Scheel for Ad Astra Live, the series has featured the works of such directors as Quentin Tarantino, Baz Luhrmann, the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, and Garry and Penny Marshall.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of “The Breakfast Club,” John Hughes’ pop culture classic that dealt with class, friendship, love, sex, fashion and music. These themes also are explored throughout “Dear John Hughes” by a “brat pack for these time” that includes a cast drawn from the stage, screen and recording world — all of whom will embody the iconic movie characters while giving them “new musical voices.” The immersive concert mash-up, where iconic music and moments from John Hughes’ movies spring to life with a new soundtrack (and a live, six-piece band), includes songs such as “Don’t You Forget About Me,” “We Are Not Alone,” “If You Leave,” “Pretty In Pink,” “If You Were Here” and “True,” as well as classic moments like “Twist And Shout” and “Try A Little Tenderness.”

The cast will feature Chicago natives Patrick Mulvey and Jackie Seiden, as well as Rumer Willis, Ruby Lewis,, Joanna Jones, James Byous, Payson Lewis and Ciaran McCarthy.

The For the Record series originally began in 2009 in a small bar in Los Angeles, and over the past few years its productions have become the “must-see shows” there, growing in popularity around the country. For the Record has been seen in New York, at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and, this past summer, at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. (For more show information: ForTheRecordLive.com.)

Individual tickets ($32-$79) go on sale at 10 a.m. Jan. 7. A select number of premium seats are also available for many performances. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (24 W. Randolph, 151 W. Randolph, 18 W. Monroe and 175 E. Chestnut), the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (800) 775-2000, all Ticketmaster retail locations and online at BroadwayInChicago.com. For groups of 10 or more call Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710.