Review – Footloose the Musical – Eastbourne

Following, as faithfully as possible, the plot of the blockbuster 1984 film, starring Kevin Bacon, the musical introduces us to teenager Ren McCormack (played by Joshua Dowen) and his mother Ethel (Lindsay Goodhand) who have been deserted by Ren’s father – who’s gone off to “find himself”, so they decide to leave their Chicago home to move in with relatives in the small town of Bomont.

In Bomont the boring routines and strict moral attitudes provide Ren with about as much fun as watching paint dry. In particular, dancing is banned in the town, because of an accident in which four students were killed after going to a dance and getting hopelessly drunk.

In this redneck, bible-bashing, town Ren finds it hard at first to make friends and is blamed for a spate of criminal behaviour, and any other local trouble. As the show heads into act two, even my young son can see where this plot is heading as it’s not exactly Mastermind.

In short – boy meets girl, boy wins over girl’s doubting father, local authorities change their minds about the high school dance, and there’s an all-singing all-dancing megamix finale dance party in the gym when the prom is finally held, with all the boring adults shedding their inhibitions and joining in the fun!

There’s certainly plenty of talent on view here to sustain the action and dish up good value for money. As Ren, Joshua Dowen is a fine dancer who manages to rival the movie talents of Mr Bacon. His singing isn’t as strong as some of the others in the cast, but when you’re dancing your head off at the same time, it’s not really surprising.

Maureen Nolan is very convincing as the downtrodden and overlooked Pastor’s wife Vi Moore and really shows why she has been at the very top of her game for so long in her two best numbers, Learning To Be Silent and Can You Find It In Your Heart, with Reuven Gershon suitably distant and overbearing as her husband, the Reverand Shaw Moore.

Full marks also go to Hannah Price as their daughter Ariel, who displays every kind of emotion through the show, really selling the sometimes brash, sometimes vulnerable nature of her character. Her duet with Ren, Almost Paradise, is exactly that.

Always dominating the stage whenever he appears, Gareth Gates, as Willard, eventually gets both of his feet pointing in the right direction (as dictated by the plot) and shows us that he’s capable of some very impressive dancing while blasting the roof off with his incredible voice in the, seriously quirky number, Mama Says (You Can’t Back Down).

In Footloose – The Musical the whole company of actor/ singer/ on stage musicians use their incredible talents well and provide more than enough music and dance. Their dialogue also does its job well in fleshing out the flimsy storyline and bringing us closer to the characters. This also gives us, and them, a few minutes of relative calm to cool down between songs.

In spite of the limitations of the storyline, Footloose – The Musical is certainly a huge barrel of fun. With some seriously infectious hi-energy 80s numbers and a couple of haunting ballads, as well as some incredible dancing, it does what it says on the tin and, with it’s feel good finale, has the huge Eastbourne audience dancing in  the aisles

****               Four Stars

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