Thursday 3 March 2022

THEATRE REVIEW: Footloose - The Opera House, Manchester.


The original film 'Footloose' is something of a classic in modern history, an iconic film that featured Kevin Bacon in the lead role and some great performances from John Lithgow and Sarah Jessica Parker amongst others. Directed by Herbert Ross, it tells the story of Ren McCormack who is a teenager from Chicago and his move to a small town called Bomont where dancing has been outlawed and the whole town is led by the local minister and his conservative ways.

'Footloose' became a stage musical in 1998 and has had several incarnations since then, the latest of which was the version I saw at the Opera House in Manchester. Additional lyrics and the stage adaptation is by Dean Pitchford, (writer of the original screenplay), as well as using some of the musical talent used in the original movie like Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman.

Ren McCormack (Joshua Hawkins) moves with his mother from the big city of Chicago to the very small town of Bomont and immediately you get a sense of the dynamics of the characters. Hawkins does an admirable job portraying the Kevin Bacon role but in the lead role in this musical I was left with a feeling of being underwhelmed – perhaps this was because his voice was not quite strong enough for this character or perhaps that he was surrounded by more rounded performers with much more experience than Hawkins. It simply didn’t feel like he was taking the lead role.

Where I think the casting works in this production is Willard Hewitt (Jake Quickenden) who displayed some expert comedy timing in his role as the small town local boy who lacks the confidence to make a move on his sweetheart Rusty (Oonagh Cox). The two of them demonstrate an on-stage chemistry that puts some of the other relationships in the shade.

Darren Day as the Reverend Shaw Moore was also very believable in the role as the senior figure who was mostly responsible for the dancing ban. His vocal performances when they came along were also exemplary – playing the elder statesman role is not something I have seen in Day previously, but the casting here was superb.

A special mention must also go out to Lucy Munden who played Ren’s love interest and the Reverend’s daughter Ariel. She had the significant task of carrying off one of the biggest numbers in the show, Jim Steinman’s “Holding Out For A Hero” but she delivered this with ease and to much delight in the audience. This complimented a really good performance from Munden and one she should be very happy with.

The whole choreography of Matt Cole must also be called out for special praise, the sequences were clearly planned with true precision and delivered expertly by those on stage. The final sequence of the Kenny Loggins’ classic “Footloose” with all of the performers on stage gives this whole production an amazing crescendo to the point where the audience are on their feet and dancing in the aisles.

'Footloose' has a great plot and should translate to an on-stage musical seamlessly but if I am totally honest I walked away thinking that it was fun but overall just a little underwhelming. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this was the case and maybe it was simply because the musical numbers we were all waiting for were those classics from the film or maybe the film is simply too iconic that we cannot help ourselves but compare. Either way it is a fun production even if it makes you feel like it should have been just that little bit better.

Reviewer - John Fish
on - 2.3.22


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