‘Always Something There’ takes fun trip to ’80s at Marriott in Lincolnshire

What do you get when you cross a time-travel storyline with 1980s hit songs and excellent performances? The answer is the world-premiere musical “Always Something There … ” playing through Aug. 10 at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. I’m old enough to remember the 1980s, and reliving them has never been so much fun.

As the show opens, Samantha Craig (Heidi Kettenring) – a married sales rep for a toilet fixture company – is checking into a hotel on a business trip. It’s the eve of her 45th birthday in 2016, and several factors make it a much-less-than-happy birthday:

• She hears a song that makes her recall a 1989 Battle of the Bands, when the boyfriend who eventually became her husband dragged her away from the band she was going to sing with, a band led by a male singer/potential boyfriend who has become a big rock star in the intervening years.

• While at the hotel registration desk, she receives paperwork that indicates her husband wants a divorce.

• The hotel gives her a one-candle, pre-birthday cupcake that appears to be the only “gift” she’s receiving.

In her room, Samantha makes a wish as she blows out her candle: “I wish I could do it all over again.”

The next morning, Samantha wakes up in the home where she lived growing up, and is back in 1989 as a high school senior in suburban Chicago. She’s now played by Christina Priestner, who is a college senior making her professional debut in this production. The younger version of Samantha has all the knowledge of the 45-year-old’s life experience, but isn’t sure how – or if – she can return to 2016.

Her best friend Camelia (played on press night by Emma Ogea), girlfriends Ella (Anna Louise Bramlett) and Scarlet (Tiyanna Gentry), brainy student Winston (Matthew Hommel), rude jock boyfriend Johnny (Ty Shay) and Cooper (Ian Coursey), the handsome/genuinely nice leader of the Rubber Band, are all there, unchanged from the way Samantha remembers them.

Finals are coming up, but, more importantly, so are life-changing decisions Samantha made about following her heart – to potentially pursue her interests in music and in Cooper. Those decisions, especially relationship-oriented ones, aren’t easy – as stated in one of the 1980s songs, Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield.” But as the younger Samantha acknowledges about the first time she went through these years, “I just let high school happen to me,” and she begins to think that whether this is just a dream or some version of reality, maybe she doesn’t need to make the same choices.

The storyline is interesting enough – including unexpected aspects to some of the students’ personalities (Winston and Ella being far more than the nerd and dumb blonde stereotypes they might initially appear to be) – but for those who remember the musical hits, there are more than 20 to enjoy.

Whether performed by the Rubber Band members, a Madonna tribute artist (in the Battle of the Bands), both versions of Samantha (yes, Kettenring is able to watch the events in 1989 and encourage her teenage self) or any/all of the high school students, you get to hear everything from “We Got the Beat” (originally a hit by The Go-Go’s) to “Even the Nights Are Better” (Air Supply), “Pour Some Sugar on Me” (Def Leppard), “Could’ve Been” (Tiffany) and “Eye of the Tiger” (Survivor).

Standouts in the cast include Kettenring, Priestner, Genevieve Corkery as goth backup band singer Debbie, Bramlett (her character’s psychological analyses of her friends are unexpected), Shay (his Johnny clearly hasn’t always been a bad choice as a boyfriend), Coursey and Ogea.

With the able direction of James Vásquez, the great dances designed by choreographer Tyler Hanes, the fantastic costumes of costume designer Amanda Vander Byl and the creative lighting choices by designer Jesse Klug, the actors have a lot to work with to bring back this decade and to make all of us in the audience wonder about our own life-changing moments and whether we’d alter anything if given the chance to return to those times.

So if there’s “Always Something There … ” to remind you (yes, that’s another song in the show) or if you didn’t live in the 1980s, but want to have a fun night of entertainment – “The Search Is Over” – head to Marriott.

• Paul Lockwood is a communications consultant at Health Care Service Corporation in Chicago, as well as a local theater actor (Woodstock Shakespeare Players, McHenry County College, The Murder Mystery Co.), singer, Grace Lutheran Church (Woodstock) and Toastmasters member, columnist, former podcaster and past president of TownSquare Players. He’s lived in Woodstock for more than 24 years.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: “Always Something There … ” musical

• WHERE: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire

• WHEN: Wednesday through Sunday until Aug. 10

• DINING: For optional dining, visit threeembersrestaurant.com

• INFORMATION: 847-634-0200, tickets.marriotttheatre.com, marriotttheatre.com