South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | March | 10
From the archive, first published Friday 10th Mar 2006.
FOOTLOOSE the musical is based on the film, starring Kevin Bacon, of the same name and which I must admit to never having seen.
But, as a fan of all 80s-throwback productions, I looked forward to this UK tour.
Despite the hype however, I left feeling somewhat disappointed.
The show centres around Ren (Derek Hough), an all-American High School dance champ from Chicago (think a blond, preppie version of Saturday Night Fever's gorgeous John Travolta). But Ren's world is turned upside down when he and his mother move to the small, clicky town of Beaumont after Ren's dad walks out.
There they find the close-knit community has been forever united in grief by tragic events some years earlier and the Rev Shaw Moore (Stephen McGann, from Emmerdale) and his fellow fuddy-duddy pals have enforced a law banning dancing.
Everywhere Ren looks, his peers are bored and oppressed. But after joining forces with the Rev's rebellious daughter Ariel (Lorna Want) and teenage outcast Rusty (Stevie Tate-Bauer), Ren soon enthuses his new school buddies to battle the authorities and change the law.
Despite the ban, dancing follows but the show lacks glitz with an all-expense spared set and the cast, bar our hero Ren and an appearance from Hearsay singer Johhny Shentall, although enthusiastic, have little sex appeal.
Cheryl Baker provides some poignant vocals as the Rev's long-suffering wife and Lorna Want's voice really raised the roof.
Hairs did stand on the back of my neck when Ren and Ariel realise their common cause and fall in love atop a railway bridge. And with the rendition of 80s hit Holding Out For a Hero, complete with all our favourite hero-clad lookalikes such as James Bond and Richard Gere from Officer in a Gentleman, you might think this is a show not to be missed.
You would be wrong. With such a flimsy plot, the show's creators may as well have dumped it altogether and just gone with the music.
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