Footloose

Life often throws us a curve ball, this musical deals with coming to terms with loss and how we deal or don't deal with them in this case. It cleverly looks at these losses from both adult and teenage perspectives, after all of the exuberant emotions it makes you think, which is no bad thing. Based on the film of the same title, Footloose was adapted for the stage by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie.

Joe Wood played Ren McCormack, the new kid from the big city, moved in with his mother Ethel to her sister's house in Bomont. To say Joe enjoyed this role, a really good all round performance, his dancing was a joy to watch.

Charlie Stubbs as Ariel, the Reverand Moore's wayward daughter, with a panchant for bad boys, worked the role really well, teasing the boys, at odds with her strict father's doctrins yet eagerly wanting his approval to be herself, a very fine potrayal.

Tom Bolam as country hick Willard, was very engaging and watchable, never over the top, worked symbiotically with Ren and his gauche reactions were excellent, so his mama said.

Rusty, Willard's love interest played by Izzy Pestridge belted out some powerful vocals especially on Let's Hear It For The Boy.

The two lead characters mother's, Ethel McCormack, played by Maia Gibbons and Vi Moore - Natalie Jackson; also gave very believable emotional performances, both torn by what life had thrown at them and coping as best as they could, the duet they sang in spotlight Learning to be Silent was beautifully sung.

The Rev Shaw Moore. - Liam Brookes, following the terrible loss of his son along with three other local children, in a terrible accident, which had lead to his crusade to save the town's families ever experiencing similar loss again. His resolute principles affected his relationship with the whole town, especially his wife and daughter. This was a well obseverd, restrained portrayal, intensly emotive at times, questioning and rituous, life not seemingly getting any easier dealing with a rebellous teenage daughter. Wonderful.

The on stage support from their fellow cast characters really gave this show a sparkle

Director James Dawe really drew out some top class performances from his young cast. The cast rewarded him with a stonking first night performance.The whole cast were vocally and visibly strong. He asked me intelligent questions as we discussed the show afterwards. I hope I managed to furnish intelligent answers for him.

Choreographer Natasha Dawe brought out the best from her cast, all the movement was visually well balanced and well executed. The dancing flowed easily from scene to scene, the classic dance sequences from the film were staged brilliantly, slick and sharply synchronised.

Musical Director Matthew Davis lead from the front on keyboard, all of his musicians did a fine job. I did however miss the distinct iconic characteristic countrymusic tone of the Fender Telecaster on the intro to the title song. All of the lead vocalists performed well, all were beautifully backed, Matthew's fine attention to detail was evident in the harmonies throughout.

Sound was good in our position middle row, middle seats but the Rep's in-house PA isn't really sufficiently capable of handling this type of full on musical. It is too small and too directional. The band at times seemed almost reliant on their own backline equipment which in my seat was well balanced. Being extra picky, there was the odd late mic fade-in, probably just a first night familiarisation issue. Lighting, on the whole was very good especially in the more emotional scenes, there did seem to be a lot of quickly made snap fades which was a little lacking in subtlty.

Costumes were good. Effective scenery flying and simple sets allowed the show a good pace, very slick scene changes as well, often unnocticed behind a song spotlit on the apron.

At times you forgot this was a youth show, there were some very competent performances that belayed the young ages of the cast.

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