The beloved 1988 Cult Film about three working-class women in their 20s, directed by Donald Petrie, son of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, filmmaker Daniel Petrie Sr., and set in the seaside Connecticut Village of Mystic, has morphed into a stage musical of massive proportions.
It is a fascinating hybrid musical, a cross between a straight dramatic adaptation and a jukebox musical, with popular hits from the 1980s providing the songs, opening with John Cougar Mellencamp’s ‘Small Town’, and then moving on to ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun ’. Songs like ‘Manic Monday’, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ all make an appearance. The list of songs takes up a whole page of the program.
The result reveals how pop culture can change and take on new forms. These songs—once omnipresent on commercial radio, pouring out of mall PA systems, gyms and countless other public places – evoke an immediate sense of joy through the music of the past.
On the other hand, director Rebecca Humphreys has made the production both nostalgic and forward-looking by highlighting a female same sex relationship, which brings the narrative into contemporary times. It works better than the movie, giving the love story an edgier feel.
The film launched the career of Julia Roberts and saw Matt Damon’s screen debut. Actor Kathryn Piche evokes Roberts visually but delivers a sinuous performance as the most forward young woman, Daisy Arujo; her sister, Kat—more reserved but brainy and on her way to Yale—is played by Ryley Davis with a curious mix of melancholy and perkiness. The third young woman, JoJo—they are all servers at the slowly declining Pizza Restaurant in town (based on a real Pizza joint)—is played with a brassy knockabout energy by Gracie MacNeil.
The original movie begins with the three women each charting out their tangled love lives. Jojo is in a long-term relationship but does not want to get married; Daisy is looking for an escape hatch more than a love story; and Kat has to work two other jobs—property management and tour guide—to fund her university studies, leaving no room for romance. Each one of these narratives will change drastically.
The musical production, with its rudimentary ensemble dances and abstract sets, delivers a sense of stylization that leaves the movie’s realism behind. Along the way, Humphries sees the theatre version of the story as a chance to push the male characters away from the narrative.
They become ornaments as the production puts its emphasis on the female point of view.
With very sharp dialogue from the original writer, Amy Holden Jones, Mystic Pizza becomes oddly more fun than the movie, with pure joy erupting from the musical numbers. Even younger members of the audience—not born until well after 1988, when the film came out—seemed to know the music. The opening motifs of each song elicited an immediate reaction every single time.
I counted 16 people on stage during the ensemble numbers, all needed to recreate the feeling of ‘the whole town,’ all necessary to fill out the narrative. Meanwhile, several scenes dealt directly with the town’s class divisions, a lingering remnant of late-1980s filmmaking.
Mystic Pizza is Community theatre at its most ambitious and yet, at its most crowd-pleasing.
TAG’s last production was a serious, small-scale costume drama ghost story with just three characters; this couldn’t be more different. The audience was completely on board, often whooping and clapping through the love scenes.
Everyone seemed to leave the theatre uplifted, myself included.
Mystic Pizza
Book by Sandy Rustin
Based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Motion Picture
With Story and Characters by Amy Holden Jones
Musical Arrangements and Orchestrations by Carmel Dean
At the Theatre Arts Guild, Halifax, until June 21, 2026
Rebecca Humphries, Director, Sound Design
Kathryn Piche, Vocal Director
Angela Butler, Producer
Rayna Smith-Camp, Stage Manager
Palma Heming, Assistant Stage Manager
Melanie Dumaresq, Choreographer
Bill Barnaby, Technical Director/Lighting Design
Mike Barnaby, Musical Engineer
Ian Vanderberg, Set Design
Ben Boylan, Sound Operator
Bill Barnaby, Angela Butler, Lighting Operator
Sherry Sullivan, Set Construction Lead
Micah Lee Daigle, Costume Co-Ordinator
Stanley Wakens, Hair/Makeup Consultant
At the Theatre Arts Guild, Halifax, until June 21, 2026
The Pond Playhouse, 6 Parkhill Drive
Tickets: call (902) 477-2663 or email: info@tagtheatre.com
