Footloose (musical)
| Footloose the musical | |
|---|---|
Playbill cover
|
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| Music | Tom Snow |
| Lyrics | Dean Pitchford |
| Book | Dean Pitchford Walter Bobbie |
| Basis | Footloose |
| Productions |
1998 Broadway |
1998 Broadway
2000 US Tour
2003 US Tour
2003 Australia
2004 UK National Tour
2006 UK National Tour
2006 West End
2007 UK Tour
2007 West End
2008 West End
Footloose is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow (among others), the lyrics by Dean Pitchford (with additional lyrics by Kenny Loggins), and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie.
Ren McCormack, an ordinary city teenager, is in a dance club in Chicago, dancing off his stresses born of his long and arduous eight-hour work day ("Footloose"). But this is his last visit; he tells his friends that due to financial pressures brought on by his father's abandonment, he and his mother Ethel are moving to a small town in the middle of nowhere named Bomont (much to the chagrin of his friends, who gripe, "Bomont?! Where the hell is Bomont?!"), where his aunt and uncle have offered them a place to stay. Once there, Ren and Ethel attend church and get their first glimpse of the minister Shaw Moore ("On Any Sunday") a conservative minister who is a big authority figure in the town. After a long sermon lambasting the evils of "rock and roll" music and its "endless chant of pornography", Moore's daughter Ariel runs off to a gas station to meet her boyfriend Chuck Cranston, who is "trailer trash"; he and Ariel are only together for the sex ("The Girl Gets Around"). While they embrace, Moore shows up and catches Chuck with his hands around his daughter, much to his displeasure.
The next day, Ren shows up for school and Willard Hewitt, a slow-witted cowboy with a bad attitude and a strong loyalty to his mother, decides to beat him up but Ren goes along with it and doesn't mind. So, they become friends. Ren tells Willard about the dancing he used to do in Chicago ("I Can't Stand Still"). Willard tries to stop him from dancing in the middle of the school, but Ren ignores him and puts on a show in front of the school principal, who angrily explains that dancing is illegal in the town of Bomont. Willard defends Ren, saying that he is new in town and does not know the rules. After the principal leaves, Rusty, who is madly in love with Willard, tells him how brave he is to have stood up to the principal on Ren's behalf. Rusty and her friends, Wendy Jo and Urleen, then explain to a bemused Ren that dancing is illegal after Moore passed a law forbidding dancing after a horrifying car accident involving four kids returning from a dance — one of whom was his son, though this is unknown to Ren or to the audience at the time. They then warn him to lie low unless he wants to get into even more trouble than he already is. ("Somebody's Eyes").
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