First we heard about The OC McMansion being up for sale, and now we've learned there was a cast reunion over the weekend! It's enough to make us dust off our DVD collection and binge-watch the entire first series again.
Rachel Bilson, who played Summer Roberts on the hit TV show, attended The Unauthorized O.C. Musical in LA on Sunday - and was joined by her castmates Melinda Clarke, (Julie Cooper), Autumn Reeser (Taylor Townsend), and Kelly Rowan (Kristen Cohen).
The popular teen drama’s co-executive producers Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, and McG, and Michael Cassidy, who played Zach, also attended the one-night-only musical extravaganza.
While the show's original cast did not star in the show (aside from Autumn Reeser, who reprised her role as Taylor), new cast members Greer Grammer as Summer, Tilky Jones as Ryan, Brendan Robinson (Seth), and Molly McCook (Marissa) gave the musical their best shot, doing an ensemble performance to California by Phantom Planet, and singing show favourites Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and Jem's cover of Maybe I'm Amazed, according to *Us Weekly. *The musical also included a dramatic re-enactment of the scene where Marissa shot Ryan's brother.
No word as yet as to whether the musical will ever be performed again, but you can see the new cast below:
Earlier, we wrote...
Let’s face it, you’re either a theatre person, or you’re not. Some of us love nothing more than getting dressed up for a night of singing, dancing and encores, the rest of us feel far more comfortable in our pyjamas binge watching Netflix with a cup of tea. But now it seems these two worlds are finally colliding. Dust off your tap shoes - noughties favourite The OC is coming to the stage.
Yes, the year of the reunion strikes again. Not content with taking Clueless, Mean Girls, Harry Potter and Cruel Intentions to Broadway and the West End, theatre buffs are penning a one-night-only noughties song and dance fest, hitting LA at the end of August.
The noughties classic told us all the story of wrong-side-of-the-tracks hottie Ryan Atwood, who finds himself in Newport Beach after being kicked out of his home. Cue Adam Brody, swooping in as Seth Cohen, to show him the ropes of Orange County, complete with girl next door Marissa Cooper and her BFF Summer Roberts in tow. So far only three characters have been cast to take these love triangles and teen crises to the stage; Marissa’s beau Luke Ward and Seth’s mum Kristen. Creator Josh Schwartz even has an actor lined up to play him on stage, so we can’t wait to find out how that pans out on August 30th.
But why the sudden reunion explosion? Is it the sudden wave nostalgia, with film/musical adaptations the next big thing after chokers and Doc Martins? Or are we just craving a reason to sing along to Kids in America? Don’t get us wrong, we love Mean Girls as much as everyone else, but can we really imagine ‘you can’t sit with us’ as an opening number? We’re not so sure, although Jingle Bell Rock and the Cady/Regina/Aaron love triangle are things we could really get in to.
Whilst we’re revelling in the idea of who stage directors will choose to play Seth (Ian Somerhalder can sing right?) we can’t help but brainstorm what other shows we’d love to see taken to the stage. Keeping to the 90’s theme maybe The Fresh Prince of Bel Air could make a comeback? Or we could dust of our sunnies and sit through a couple of hours of 90210 The Musical. Whatever comes next, we’re still fully into the 90’s throwback, with or without the Jelly Platforms.
So fetch.
By Jess Howard