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Footloose |
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Author: Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie
Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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"Footloose" is the Much Needed Pre-Millennial Jolt!
Call it the "Grease" for the end of the twentieth century. Or call it the "Chicago" for the new millennium. Call it what you will, the new Broadway musical "Footloose" is exactly what New York City commercial theatre needs right now: a fresh musical with a talented, energetic cast
and ensemble, and theatre with some "purpose." This Dean Pitchford-Walter Bobbie-Tom Snow collaboration opened at the Richard Rogers Theatre on Thursday, October 22 and promises to be not only a successful Broadway show, but a show with heart and soul. It's rock-pop contemporary score supports an "compelling story with an emotional appeal" (Walter Bobbie).
  
The musical "Footloose" (like its precedent 1984 film) is the story of Ren McCormack (Jeremy Kushnier) who, with his mother Ethel (Catherine Cox), leaves Chicago after his father leaves them and drives ten hours to Bomont, Texas to live with his aunt and uncle and start life all over. In addition to feeling like an outsider (big city teen trying to exist in a country environment), Ren experiences a town which for some reason has isolated itself from the rest of the world, a town where the Rev. Shaw Moore (Stephen Lee Anderson) has become synonymous with "law" and a night out means a visit to the local Burger Blast.
How do the residents of this Bomont, Texas town come to embrace Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" as fit for high school students to read and deplore Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" as not only unreadable, but vulgar and unacceptable for the high school student to read? How does a once caring and understanding pastor become an angry, defensive human being who has lost his ability to love his wife, fails to understand his daughter's adolescence, and bans all dancing within the town limits of Bomont?
All this can happen when a town and its residents are prisoners of grief. Ren discovers that The Shaw family lost a son and brother Bobby to a fatal car accident. He was returning from a dance when the car he was in with three other teens careened off the Potawney bridge into the river below. Unable to cope with his son's death, Shaw "atones" for his death by denying himself, his wife, his daughter, and all the residents of Bomont all access to life and joy and happiness. He has forgotten how to love, how to be authentic, how to be honest with himself and with others. His preaching still raises people up, but, as his wife Vi (Dee Hoty) tells him, he is no longer effective "one on one." Recovering from his own grief after losing his father, all of his friends and his Chicago home, Ren eventually manages to "get" to the Rev. Shaw, not through his "preaching" to the town Council (Bible in hand), but through connecting with him and his shared grief. When Moore agrees to the dance, healing begins for him, for Ren, and for all the residents of Bomont. And by the time of the curtain call (after the exhilarating dance scene), there is much needed healing happening throughout the audience.
Everything about "Footloose" is right. The cast and ensemble are perfect in every way: they all dance well, sing well and act well. When the Company is on stage, the audience has no choice but to "let loose" and enjoy every moment of that blessed release. The music is pop-rock at its best and the songs are delivered well by the cast. A. C. Ciulla's physically demanding choreography is the apt match to Bomont's pent up fear and aggression and watching the cast and ensemble execute his steps is sheer joy. John Lee Beatty's set, Toni-Leslie James' costumes, and Ken Billington's lighting are always on target. From church, to burger joint, to kitchen, to dance bar, to steel bridge, everything works well for the actors and for the audience. And all of this is carefully handled by director Walter Bobbie who gives the audience an almost flawless staging of his and Dean Pitchford's adaptation. Tom Snow's music (all the songs from the movie and all of the new songs) is all that it should be for this show: stirring the soul when it is uptempo and touching the depths of the spirit when down.
Jeremy Kushnier has a wonderful voice and a sweet, clear falsetto range. Whether he is singing a duet with Jennifer Laura Thompson (Ariel Moore) or a number with the Boys ("Dancing Is Not A Crime"), Kushnier makes us all glad he "got on the bus" and did this show. All of the leads are more than competent and each brings a depth to her or his character which touches the audience member at exactly the right place. Catherine Cox stands out in her performance as Ethel McCormack, Ren's mother, who is able to transcend her own grief and loneliness to support her son and encourage him to stand up for what he believes in and he tries to make sense of his new home. Anytime Ariel, Rusty (Stacy Francis), Wendy Jo (Rosiland Brown) and Urleen (Kathy Deitch) are on stage there is pure magic happening. Tom Plotkin is the perfect Willard Hewitt who recognizes in the "new kid" the soul mate he has needed all his life. Billy Hartung is sensuality and mischief personified. When his Chuck Cranston is on stage, whether on his bike or lurking in the shadows, one is not sure whether to hide or ask for a date! Stephen Lee Anderson and Dee Hoty are so real as The Rev. Shaw Moore and Vi Moore that the audience member instantly relates to the pain of a relationship in crisis. And when Vi and Ethel sing the wonderful duet "Learning to Be Silent" there are no secrets of the heart left unopened. All of the characters in this musical are real and believable with looks and body types which match the real people in the audience and in the towns and cities like Chicago and Bomont.
We approach the millennium with some degree of angst, fearing the work of short-sighted computer programmers from the past decades will, in the year 2000, result in brown-outs, black- outs, flight control chaos, and irreconcilable bank statements. We approach that new century also knowing that we can no longer live in isolation. With the Rev. Shaw Moore, we know it is "time to let the world in." However, in addition, it is a time of "love restored," a time for us to "return to the heart." "Footloose" is a bridge to that new century where, hopefully, heart will conquer fear and a generation can, perhaps, go "into a world without a shred of cynicism" (Walter Bobbie).
Reviewed on Wednesday, October 21, 1998
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Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. Based on the original screenplay by Dean Pitchford. Music by Tom Snow. Lyrics by Dean Pitchford. Directed by Walter Bobbie; choreographed by A.C. Ciulla; scenery designed by John Lee Beatty; costumes designed by Toni-Leslie James; lighting designed by Ken Billington; sound designed by Tony Meola; production supervisor, Steven Beckler.
WITH
Cast
Jim Ambler (Lyle), Stephen Lee Anderson (Rev. Shaw Moore), Robin Baxter (Betty Blast/Irene), Rosalind Brown (Wendy Jo), Catherine Campbell (Lulu Warnicker), Bryant Carroll (Travis), Paul Castree (Garvin), Catherine Cox (Ethel McCormack), Kathy Deitch (Urleen), John Deyle (Principal Clark/Saloon Keeper), Hunter Foster (Bickle), Stacy Francis (Rusty), Artie Harris (Jeter/Cowboy Bob), Billy Hartung (Chuck Cranston), John Hillner (Coach Dunbar), Dee Hoty (Vi Moore), Jeremy Kushnier (Ren McCormack), Adam Lefevre (Wes Warnicker), Donna Lee Marshall (Eleanor Dunbar/Doreen), Tom Plotkin (Willard Hewitt), Nick Sullivan (Cop/Country Fiddler), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Ariel Moore).
Ensemble
Billy Angell, Angela Brydon, Paul Castree, Hunter Foster, Kristen Leigh Gorski, Artie Harris, Sean Haythe, Lori Holmes, Daniel Karaty, Katherine Leonard, Mark Myars, JoAnna Ross, Serena Soffer, Ron Todorowski.
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