One of the most captivating and entertaining plays I've seen was performed at the Dean College Theatre Department last weekend. Produced by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Footloose was brought to the small town of Franklin, Massachusetts by director James T. Beauregard. From the very minute the play began, I was fascinated to see a whole group of young students singing and dancing at the same rhythm. I had never heard of Footloose before so of course it all came as a huge surprise for me. The music by Tom Snow, whose lyrics were written by Dean Pitchford, was mind-blowing and exciting. .
The performance opened with Ren McCormack, the main character, and his mother Ethel, moving from vibrating, full-of-life Chicago to the small, low-key town of Bomont, Texas. This transition was extremely difficult for Ren who had somewhat of a hard time fitting in with the Texan crowd. Soon after, Ren began falling for Ariel, daughter of Reverend Shaw Moore, and found himself in trouble. Not only did Ariel had a boyfriend already, but having been used to dancing and clubbing back in Chicago, Ren was baffled by the law the prohibited dancing in Bomont. So, he decided to change things by getting his senior classmates on his side and proving the Reverend how truly harmless dancing is. .
I thought Anthony Watkin, who played Ren McCormack, proved himself a true singer to the audience on Sunday night. Along with Anthony, Christine Brito (Vi Moore), Theresa MacFeat (Ariel Moore) and Kristen Kesner (Rusty) were other astounding singers. One of my very favorite scenes though was when the whole group of students and towns people got together to sing and dance the original Footloose song. When it came to the dancing, I thought Lisa Pari did an awesome job at choreographing the performance! I didn't see any actors dancing out of rhythm although, some certain solos like Anthony Watkin's I felt could have been a lot more appealing.
