One morning in 1985, five high school students were forced to give up their Saturday to sit in detention, where they learned about themselves and became friends. Unfortunately, this was the last day of the world, as World War III caused The End of the World as We Know It, leaving the five kids and the janitor as probably the last people on earth.
The Last Breakfast Club is a Jukebox Musical sequel to The Breakfast Club. Allison, Andrew, Bender, Brian, and Claire have been stuck in the library at their high school for years, as the stress of prolonged lockdown and the awareness that everyone they've ever known is probably dead weighs on them. When visitors from the future let them know they must leave the library in order to restart civilization, the central teens, the school Janitor, and their zombified Principal must face truths about themselves and discover how to create a new, better world.
Years of lockdown have fundamentally altered the characters. Claire, Bender, and Andrew have forgotten their development from the movie, as she returned to her Alpha Bitch ways, while Bender and Andrew spend their days tormenting each other and fighting a growing attraction. Allison has become more politically engaged, while Brian remains The Heart of the group.
The Janitor has gone from the Voice of Reason to The Fundamentalist, believing that the apocalypse is God punishing the world for its sinfulness. Vice Principal Vernon, in an effort to save the students, has turned into a Friendly Zombie.
Old relationships end and new ones are formed, the characters learn about themselves, and they all must face what their lives would look like outside the library.
Don't you forget about these tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Bender recalls the physical and emotional abuse from his parents. Both Vernon and Andrew try to combat the lasting trauma the abuse has left on him.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Bender and Andrew, who were both ostensibly straight in the original film, break up with their girlfriends and begin a relationship with each other.
- Amicable Exes: Allison and Andrew have a genuine bond and close friendship after their breakup, to the point where she extends much of her energy to get him and Bender together. Bender and Claire likewise seem to get along better once they've broken up.
- Armored Closet Gay: Bender really doesn't want to admit he loves Andrew.
- Big Damn Kiss: Bender and Andrew during the last show, after the Final Love Duet.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Both Vernon and Andrew express their sympathy for Bender and disgust towards his abusive father.
- Canon Foreigner: Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back to the Future make cameos (both were released in 1985 and are owned by Universal).
- Caught Up in the Rapture: What the Janitor thinks happened that ended the world.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The show takes place in the apocalypse.
- Family of Choice: In Brian's essay, which he leaves for Vernon at the end of the musical, he writes, "We found out that each of us is more than just a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a janitor, or a criminal. We're a family. And you know what? We owe it all to you."
- Gay Guy Seeks Popular Jock: Andrew was a popular wrestler in high school, and dates Bender.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Brian claims to have slept with several girls in the Niagara Falls area.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Brian (played by the blonde Garrett Clayton) is easily the kindest, most moral member of the group.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Vice Principal Vernon is decomposing and has a taste for human flesh, but he is otherwise still the same person, with the ability to reason and feel.
- Parental Love Song: Claire sings about her complicated relationship with her dad, with whom she wishes she had been closer when he was alive, in "The Living Years."
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Brian delivers a pretty epic one, calling Allison, Bender, and Andrew out on their avoidance of their issues. This being Brian, he does it in the nicest way imaginable.
- Secretly Gay Activity: Allison views Bender and Andrew's physical fighting as an excuse to get close to each other.
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Signature Scene: Like the film, the musical ends with Bender pumping his fist in the air. However, this time, all his friends are there with him, their fists likewise in the air. - Soapbox Sadie: Allison. She is frequently used as a mouthpiece for contemporary liberal politics, sometimes going into rants or speeches about feminism.
- Transparent Closet: The only people who don't know Bender and Andrew have feelings for each other are Bender and Andrew.
- Values Dissonance: The musical addresses many of the outdated aspects of The Breakfast Club.
- Villain Song: Vernon's verse in "We're Not Gonna Take It". Averted with "Dead Man's Party", as it serves to humanize Vernon.
