A star-making lead performance by fresh-out-of-college triple threat Thomas Whitcomb tops the reasons why Footloose The Musical is well worth a drive to the Simi Valley Performing Arts Center.

Like Kevin Bacon in Footloose’s 1984 screen debut, Whitcomb puts on his dancing shoes as Chicago-transplant Ren McCormack, freshly arrived at podunk Bomont High and fighting for his fellow students’ right to “cut footloose” in a town where busting a move is not just frowned upon, it’s downright illegal.

Both the movie and its 1998 Broadway adaptation follow teenage Ren and his mother Ethel (Renee Cohen) from America’s third-largest city to the sticks of Bomont in search of refuge following the goodbye-and-good-riddance departure of Ren’s good-for-nothing dad.

It’s hard enough for a Chicago boy to adjust to life in the boonies, but when Ren learns that dancing is against the law inside city limits, it’s the last straw, and the Chi-town teen determines to do something about it.

First, however, he must win over the high school population by turning himself into the boy all the other boys want to be and the one all the girls want to be bad with, particularly Ariel (Hannah Battersby), the rebellious daughter of a town preacher (Paul Panico as Shaw Moore) compelled by a family tragedy to keep Bomont dance-free.

Abetted by his new best friend, the sweet but not-too-bright Willard (Andreas Pantazis), and by Ariel’s best girlfriends Rusty (Tyler Marie Watkins), Urleen (Lily Targett), and Wendy Jo (Megan Vargas), Ren vows to bring dancing back to Bomont, if it’s the last thing he does.

This being musical theater, it’s a no-brainer how it all turns out, but getting there is all the fun.

Footloose The Broadway Musical not only treats its audience to the movie’s many Top 40 hits, it throws in a bunch of new Tom Snow/Dean Pitchford creations for good measure.

Book writers Pitchford and Walter Bobbie find clever ways to turn background tracks into plot-propellers. (Ariel declares her intention to be “Holding Out For A Hero.” Rusty sings the praises of just-learned-to-dance Willard in “Let’s Hear It For The Boy.”)

Choreographer Michelle Elkin gives each and every one of the Bomont high schoolers—a student body completed by the all-around sensational Mary Kate Chapman (dance captain), Carson Christ, Kenneth Gary, Noah Heie, Megan Holeman, Morgan Lavin (assistant choreographer), Ayumi Matsumoto, Mary MJ Mikesell, Casey Ryan, Sasha Serdyukov, Jaeda Stone, Hunter Uliasz, and Dylan Woodford—plenty of chances to cut footloose in one toe-tapping, foot-stomping production number after another.

Co-directors Barry Pearl and Elkin make inventive, at times inspired use of SVCAC’s much-smaller-than-Broadway stage, with set designer Panico providing just enough movable set pieces to transform it from high school corridor to honkytonk saloon to church to town hall, all of them downstage from the production’s Grade-A six-piece live band* conducted by keyboardist-music director Jeffrey Gibson.

I can’t rave enough about recent Ball State Musical Theater grad Whitcomb, who not only looks the part of a high schooler, he sings and dances up a red-hot storm as Ren while showing off acting chops to boot, and triple threat Battersby has exactly what it takes to make it clear why this bad girl is precisely the right girl for our hip-swiveling hero, and just wait till the two of them join voices to reach the rafters with “Almost Paradise.”

Pantazis is an absolute delight as Willard, who may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but proves such a lightning-fast study where fancy footwork is concerned, it’s no wonder big-voiced charmer Watkins’ Rusty is smitten, and each nails a vocal showcase, Patazis’s irresistible “Mama Says” and Watkins’ infectious “Let’s Hear It For The Boy.”

Targett and Vargas are topnotch too as Ariel and Rusty’s best gal pals, the same can be said about Heie, Ryan, and Uliasz as Ren and Willard’s teen posse, Christ gives Nashville country stars a run for their money as “Still Rockin’” Cowboy Bob, and Leonardo Cecchi proves that his teen stardom in the Italian-language Disney series Alex & Co. was no fluke, abandoning his good guy persona as Ren’s chief nemesis Chuck Cranston while delivering a sizzling hot “The Girl Gets Around.”

Ronna Jones does deeply moving, gorgeously sung work as Vi opposite Panico’s caring if misguided Shaw, and Cohen is excellent as always as Ren’s mom.

Vivian Latham (Principal Clark), Peter Miller (Wes Warnicker), Margaret Mortimore, Cindy Pearl (Lulu Warnicker, Betty Blast), Ron Rezac (Coach Roger Dunbar) complete the finger-wagging adult cast of characters.

The design contributions of Ian Kelley (lighting), Alison Mahay (props), and Jeff Raum (scenic painter) more than fill the bill, with Cindy Peltola’s ’80s-esque costumes a particular design standout.

Ethan Strubble aces his sound design assignment and the same can be said for vocal director Jan Roper.

Footloose The Musical is produced by Panic Productions, BarCinCoo Productions, Alison Mahay, and Paige Loter. Rachel Goodman is production stage manager. Nick Caisse is technical director. Sandra Kuker is publicist.

Catchy songs, infectious dance numbers, and an awesomely talented young cast—this all-around terrific Footloose The Musical has them all. I dare you not to want to “lose your blues, kick off your Sunday shoes, and cut footloose.”

*Jeff Castanon, Steve Clift, Gibson, Dann Gillen, Margaret Joyce, Satoshi Kirisawa

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org
www.panicproductions.org

–Steven Stanley
April 30, 2023
Photos: Richard Andert

Tags: Dean Pitchford, Panic! Productions, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Tom Snow, Ventura County Theater Review