You make me feel like dancing . (Footloose - The Musical)

Member Name: eiley123

Product:	Footloose - The Musical
Date:	15/03/07 (2707 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Cast , great music and dance , good characters .

Disadvantages: Parts of plot weak .

As those of you who have read my Hull New Theatre review already know , I went to see Footloose The Musical last Saturday . I saw the film with Kevin Bacon in the lead role many years ago and really enjoyed it . The stand out memories of the film were the dancing and the music . That also was definitely true of the stage musical .

The plot of both has the same basic theme .

Footloose the Musical starts with Ren McCormack , played by Tommy Sherlock , telling his friends he and his Mom are moving from Chicago to a backwoods , hick town called Beaumont . If there is anyone who hasn’t seen Footloose I won’t spoil it for you . Suffice to say that Beaumont has a few strange ideas , rules and regulations .

It is very much a coming of age tale , dealing with family relationships and generation gaps .Throw in the difference between city kids and country ones , add a fair amount of teenage angst , and you have the story .

I found the stage musical to be a bit weak conveying the plot ( much more so than the film ) but a tower of strength as far as the dancing and singing went . It had so many well known pop standards , like Footloose , The girl gets around and Let’s hear it for the Boy with some not so well known . On the whole it had a young , fresh cast who were full of life and so keen , despite having done 2 performances on the Saturday before ours . So much so that the rest of the cast had to practically drag Tommy Sherlock from the stage at the end .

As it was the final show that week there was a terrific encore . The cast did a cross between a line dance and river dance .

The scenery was sufficient but basic . Whether this was lack of stage space or the norm I don’t know . Some basic things were wheeled on a couple of times . This meant though that there were no distractions from the characters .

It was good family entertainment as there was nothing offensive .

When Ariel Moore , played by Miria Parvin ( the female lead ) , sings ‘Holding out for a Hero’ and a gang of slow motion heroes appear the scene is electric . The cheers from a row of young women on the row behind us said it all . From the firemen to the naval officer to the builder they were all perfect .
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Cast
Lyn Paul - Vi Moore , oldies like me remember her from the New Seekers but she has done much more recently .
Julian Agnew - Rev Shaw Moore , this character is one of the big problems for youngsters in Beaumont .
Tommy Sherlock - Ren McCormack . I wasn’t so keen on this actors voice as his dancing . He was so athletic and had so much stage presence.
Miria Parvin - Ariel Moore . This character is the reverends daughter and has many issues to sort out . She had a good , strong singing voice and was a great dancer .
Giovanni Spano - Willard Hewitt . This character has two left feet and needs some friendly help to learn how to dance .
Johnny Shentall - Chuck Cranston plays Ariels bit of rough , so to speak , before Ren arrives in town .
Nikki Belsher - Ethel McCormack plays Ren’s Mom . Apparently she is Lynn Paul’s sister .
There is an excellent supporting cast who seem to have appeared in lots of productions around the country .
There was a fine supporting orchestra .
I did find one or two of the female singing voices a bit loud and cutting but I think that was maybe due to the Theatre not being very large .
There were flashing lights a couple of times , and especially at the end , done to represent disco and dance . They weren’t strobe lighting but they were very bright and I did feel a warning should have been on the tickets etc .
One thing I liked was the american accents sounded authentic .

Footloose the Musical is based on the original screenplay by Dean Pritchford . It is actually based around a true story which took place in Elmore City in Oklahoma .
Music by Tom Snow .
Lyrics by Dean Pritchford .
Additional music by Eric Carmen , Sammy Hagar , Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman .
Directed and Choreographed by Karen Bruce .
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For me the plot in Footloose the musical is a bit of a let down but that’s possibly the old cynic in me . What I did love though was the music and dance . It fits perfectly and has your feet tapping right from the start . It’s hard trying not to jump up and join right in . It has a happy , youthful , feel good factor , particularly at the end .

If you love Footloose the movie or that sort of 80’s music , and you get the chance , go and see the stage musical . I am not a bigger lover of musicals but I thoroughly enjoyed Footloose and it was worth every penny . It played to a full house and went down a storm .

Thanks for reading
Copyright Eiley

Summary: From the first beat you will want to jump up and join in .