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“Footloose”
Posted by Gail M. Burns - January 2010
“And I can’t forget how it feels when dance ‘til you drop
So don’t even start to suggest that I stop
I never will
I can’t…
No, no, no,
No, no, no…
I can’t stand still.”
- Dean Pitchford
These are the final words of the big solo number by Footloose leading man Ren McCormack (Tory Clemente). This is the energy that pervades the show – that endless energy and angst of adolescence. The kids of tiny, rural Bomont, situated in an unnamed Bible Belt state (the real life town that inspired this show is Elmore City, Oklahoma) think that all will be well once they graduate high school and get the hell out of there, but Ren, raised in Chicago and newly arrived in Bomont, knows that:
“Running away will never make you free
Doesn’t matter where you go, I guarantee”
And no one wants to run away more than the girl he falls for, the preacher’s daughter, Ariel Moore (Lawson Young). A sensitive intellectual in a town that values neither, Ariel feigns rebellion by dressing trampy and taking up with ex-con drop-out Chuck Cranston (Kody Carpenter) and his cronies Travis (David Armanino) and Lyle (Grant Beals). But this is just a cry for attention from her father Rev. Shaw Moore (Shawn R. Morgan) and mother Vi (Laurie Larson), who have retreated into themselves since tragedy struck the family five years ago.
Footloose is a story set in two worlds – the high school world of Ren and Ariel and their friends Willard (Nicholas Whitney), Rusty (Cecilia Snow), and Wendy Jo (London Sperry), and the adult world of Rev. & Mrs. Moore; Ren’s mother Ethel (Karen Kolterman), who has had to move in with her sister Lulu (Angela Potrikos) and brother-in-law Wes (Bill Douglas) after being abandoned by Ren’s father; Coach Dunbar (Sky Vogel) and his wife Eleanor (Joan Faxon), and Principal Clark (Bill Sanderson).
The only character to straddle these worlds is scooter riding, leather jacket wearing, malt shop owner Betty Blast (Carol Charniga), who passes out cigarettes to the kids (that’s legal and dancing isn’t? What a town!) and sings in the church choir.
What Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie have failed at in this 1998 stage adaptation of Pitchford’s 1984 hit screenplay, is to give us a clear enough picture of the adult world that we really understand and care about all those characters. For instance, Betty Blast is intriguing, and Charniga is just delightful in the role, but where did she come from and how does she fit in to Bomont society. What makes her tick? Why doesn’t she get a really outrageous solo to explain all that?
Bomont is a town that doesn’t value the opinions or feelings of its women. Why don’t Lulu and Eleanor join Vi, Ethel and Ariel in the poignant number Learning to Be Silent? We learn what shapes Reverend Moore’s mindset, why do Wes, Coach Dunbar, and Principal Clark go along so willingly? Who are they?
And the exploration of the relationship between Ren and his mother is unsatisfyingly shallow.
No, what hops and pops and grabs your heart are the kids. Which is why Footloose, recently released for amateur production, is a wildly popular choice for high school and youth theatre groups. Frankly, no one over 25 is going to have the dancing chops for this show anyway. It won’t be coming to a Senior Center near you anytime soon.
C-R Kids is in the enviable situation of being able to cherry-pick from the most ambitious and talented youth in the capital region. I understand they auditioned about 130 teens for this production, which had a cast of 21 young people and nine adult performers. These kids WANT to be there and they WANT to perform.
As I exited the theatre a little boy in front of me said “I liked the solo parts the best.” And I agreed with him. Every single soloist put his or her whole body and soul into their numbers, and those moments were wonderful. Obviously the actors playing the leads had plenty of solo opportunities, but director Kristen VanGinhoven did a good job of spreading the wealth, and most of the cast members got at least a line or two to belt out on their own. I am sure this was good for morale, since many of the actors filling minor chorus roles here are youngsters I have seen carry leads in shows at other theatres. In fact many members of this cast have been performing regionally since they were in elementary school.
As an example, I saw Young as in the lead in Annie at Cohoes in 2005. Kelly Swint, the Annie I didn’t review, is also in this cast. These two young ladies shared the role of Baby June in Gypsy at the Mac-Haydn in 2004 (I reviewed Swint that time). I missed Swint when she shared the role of Susie in White Christmas at the Mac in 2007, but in 2008 she caught my eye when she and Alison Lehane acted as Heavenly Helpers to the Starkeeper in the Mac-Haydn production of Carousel. Lehane I have reviewed as Amaryllis in The Music Man at the Mac, and as Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street and Bridget Flynn in Orphan Train at NYSTI, a role I hope she will be reprising in April. Lehane also appeared as Tessie in the production of Annie that starred Young and Swint. Sperry, who played Susan in the Cohoes production of White Christmas teamed up with Armanino to alternate in the roles of Emile de Becque’s children in the Mac-Haydn’s 2006 production of South Pacific, and Armanino played Willard in the Mac’s production of Footloose this past September.
You get the idea. These kids, newcomers and veteran performers alike, are GOOD!
Clemente and Young provide support in the leads. They are attractive and genuine, and convincingly play kids to whom their peers look for leadership. It was a bit of a kick in the gut to see Little Orphan Annie shaking her booty in tight jeans and red cowboy boots, but I got over that, even though these kids are obviously aging way faster than I am, right?
The roles of Willard and Rusty (the role that made a film star of Sarah Jessica Parker, who got her start starring in Annie on Broadway) are the really fun parts, and Snow and Whitney make the most of them, seriously owning the stage in their solos Mama Says and Let’s Hear It for the Boy.
Beals doubles as Cowboy Bob and handled a prop malfunction smoothly just before belting out his big number Still Rockin’ on opening night. And I was intrigued by Mantica’s lusty singing voice, evident on only a few occasions. I see she is a high school freshman, and I hope this means I will get to see her career and talent blossom in larger roles over the next few years.
The adults…well, they all turned in solid performances and I know I am supposed to care about them, but they end up being about as interesting and important to this show as the unseen, inarticulately squawking grown-ups in the Charlie Brown specials are to the Peanuts gang.
Where the show fizzled slightly, at least on opening night, was in the big dance numbers. Rivera has concocted some exciting and challenging choreography for the kids, but as a group they are stronger singers and actors than dancers and Jen Price-Fick and Karl Chmielewski’s huge, hideous, and distracting two-story set leaves them little room to “cut footloose.” Why is the stage filled with annoying little grey cubes? And why are they constantly being hauled about and rearranged? Half the time this process took too long and held up the supposedly non-stop flow of the show, and the other half they were set too quickly and left in precarious states of instability.
Alas, the show looks pretty crummy visually. The massive grey set looks more industrial than rural and takes up way too much space. No one is brave enough to take credit for the costumes, which is probably a good thing. (Apparently everyone in Bomont wears plaid shirts.) And Chmielewski’s lighting design was inadequate and uneven. I know budgets are tight but minimal and attractive can be even cheaper than massive and ugly.
But hooray hooray, this production isn’t miked!! That’s right, these kids are singing unaided over the cheerful five-piece Cohoes Music Hall Orchestra, under the baton of Nathan Meredith. And I could hear just about every word in the next to last row of the orchestra, underneath the overhang of the balcony. I really believe that it is so important to train up-and-coming performers to “Sing Out, Louise.” C-R Kids is doing these youngsters a great service.
The C-R Kids production of Footloose runs through January 17 at the Cohoes Music Hall, 58 Remsen Street in Cohoes, NY. The show runs two hours and twenty minutes with one intermission and is suitable for the whole family. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Call the box office at 518-237-5858 for information and reservations.