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Feet still tapping along in Bomont
Holding out for a Hero in Bomont's dance free zone. Pictures: Robert Day Footloose Wolverhampton Grand **** IF YOU like feel-good musicals that don’t
demand too much concentration to follow then Footloose should be right
up your street. It is a non-stop, high-energy production laced
with some fairly well known songs and lots of energetic dancing. This is the tale of Bomont, Texas, a small
town deep in the American Bible belt where our hero Ren McCormack
(Adam C Booth) finds himself after his father walked out and his
abandoned mother Ethel (Carys Gray) moved with him from Chicago to stay
with her brother. Day one sees them in church and hellfire and
damnation sermons from Rev Shaw Moore (Steven Pinder). Things don’t improve the next day when streetwise
Ren, on his first day at his new school, has a run in with dim witted
cowboy Willard (Giovanni Spano) who has a mother fixation and a tendency
to talk with his fists. The pair almost fight but end up as the best of
friends and that is when Ren discovers the awful truth about Bomont –
dancing is illegal. The plot may seem far fetched unless you have
ever been through small town America in the bible belt where anything is
possible – and it is based loosely on a true event in Oklahoma when
dancing was banned in Elmore City, city being a bit presumptions for a
town of around 800 souls. The ban came in in the 1880s and was in force
until 1980 when high school students won the right for a dance at their
annual prom. Lord only knows what their proms had been like up
to then. Meanwhile back at the plot old Ren ends up in
trouble pretty well twice a scene which attracts the Rev’s rebellious
daughter Ariel (Lorna Want) like a moth to a flame dumping current
boyfriend, high school drop out and part time Neanderthal, Chuck (Harry
Neale) in the process. A move which sees trouble and a few black eyes
for both her and Ren. The guys are on a high at Bar B-Q Diplomacy is not one of Chuck’s strongpoints and
considering he and his cohorts beat up Ren and he slaps Ariel around a
bit it is surprising that the script cannot find some way for to get his
comeuppance. Amongst al, the teenage angst we discover the
dance ban was brought in by the brimstone spouting Rev after four
youngsters died in a car crash coming home from a dance and one was his
son. Ren, as in Elmore City, tries to lift the ban at
the town council meeting so the kids can have a high school dance but
fails which leaves a heart to heart with the Rev who sees the error of
his ways and everyone dances happily ever after. And to an extent therein lies the fault of this
show. The dancing and singing is fine it is the bits inbetween that let
it down. The dialogue is at best wooden and the while the cast are doing
their best, Spano, for example, manages to squeeze everything possible
out of the part of Willard, the dialoge generates neither the passion or
feeling of the p[lot. The Rev’s sermons hardly inspire and are short on
emotion while Rem’s heart to heart which changes the Rev back to the all
singing, all dancing vicar he was before his son was killed is hardly in
the I had a dream class of speeches. There are some funny lines but in general the
music is good the dancing skilled and energetic but the play bit, the
dialogue, clunks along filling in the gaps between songs rather than
standing tall on its own two feet. Top song is probably Holding Out for a Hero
with a memorable performance from the girls led by Ariel,
indeed the girl’s voices are probably better then the boys in this
production with perhaps the best Rusty (Jodie Jacobs) who has real power
and a lovely sound.
Hero comes complete with a Village People style
dance from the male company, complete with builder’s bum. The romantic duet Almost Paradise when Ren
and Ariel realise they are in love is another highlight of the show. The clever set designed by Morgan Large allows
swift, seamless scene changes and the band under Julian Reeve are
faultless driving the show on at a cracking pace. The musical dates from 1998 and is based on
the 1884 film which had Kevin Bacon in the lead role as Ren and sometime
this year a remake of the film is due out which is s ort of adaptation
of the stage musical – an industry feeding on itself. All in all it is a fun night out with lively
music, and, for a place where it is banned, lots of dancing and although
you won’t come out deep in thought you should have a smile on your face. Roger Clarke
* * * * THIS is a story about a small, God-fearing
town in American where dancing is banned to protect the young people,
but the show simply explodes with....provocative dancing! And that is thanks to Ren McCormack, a
newcomer from Chicago who arrives in Bomont with his abandoned mum and
sets about changing the law which was introduced following the death of
four youngsters in a car crash on the way home from a knees-up. Adam C. Booth gives a wonderfully agile
performance as Ren, treated as a rebel but eventually succeeding in his
campaign and even winning the attractive daughter of the town's
hard-line Preacher, the Rev Shaw Moore (Steven Pinder). Booth is a real bundle of energy with a fine
voice, supported by a cracking cast who simply get the theatre rocking
well before the final scenes which had the first night audience on their
feet rocking and clapping to the lively music. Lorna Want is an impressive Ariel Moore,
shapely daughter of the preacher who was enjoying a few sexy clinches
with the town's tough guy Chuck Cranston (Harry Neale) behind dad's back
before Ren's intervention. A terrific contribution, too, from Giovanni
Spano, the stetson-wearing Willard Hewitt who can't do it....dancing,
that is, until he gets a lesson from the lads while girl friend Rusty
(Jodie Jacobs) sings beautifully one of the hit songs, Let's Hear it for
the Boy. Holding Out for a Hero is the other
show-stopper in Footloose which benefits from the vision of
director-choreographer Karen Bruce and musical director Julian Reeve. To
25.06.11
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