Director Barry Pearl and co-director/choreographer Michelle Elkin re-team at the Colony Theatre to bring L.A. audiences a bigger-budget incarnation of their 2023  hit Footloose The Musical, though this time round minus the powerhouse star turn of last year’s breakout leading man.

Like the Kevin Bacon movie smash on which it is based, Footloose The Musical focuses on Chicago transplant Ren McCormack (Brady Fritz), 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 1984 flick and its 1998 Broadway adaptation follow Ren and his mother Ethel (Whitney Kathleen Vigil) from America’s third-largest city to the Midwestern sticks following the goodbye-and-good-riddance departure of the teenager’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 final 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 (Kelsey Lee Smith), the rebellious daughter of town preacher Shaw Moore (Larry Cedar), compelled by a family tragedy to keep Bomont dance-free.

Abetted by his new best friend, the sweet but not-too-bright Willard (James Beardsley), and by Ariel’s best gal pals Rusty (Casey Anne Apregan), Urleen (Cami Del Rosario), and Wendy Jo (Lauren Lorati), 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 an additional bunch of 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.”)

All of this gives choreographer Elkin and her cast of up-and-coming singer-dancers (Lauren Aronoff, Lauren Barette, Melvin Biteng, Mary Kate Chapman, Arielle Dettmer, Noah Heie, Christopher Ho, Veronica Carolina Leite, Almand Martin Jr., Michael Riskin, Coby Rogers, Mathew San Jose, Callula Sawyer, and Madison Miyuki Sprague) the opportunity to “cut Footloose” in some of the most toe-tapping, foot-stomping production numbers in town.

Smith’s sweet-meets-sexy Ariel recalls Ann-Margret in her Bye Bye Birdie/Viva Las Vegas days, a good girl more than happy to sin where bad boys are concerned, and Sammy Linkowski’s sizzlingly hot Chuck Cranston is precisely the town trouble-maker to fire up Ariel’s engine.

Beardsley is a nonstop delight as a big-hearted redheaded country bumpkin who’s such a lightning-fast study where fancy footwork is concerned, it’s no wonder Apregan’s bubbly, power-piped Rusty goes woo-woo for Willard,

Del Rosario and Lorati’s Ariel and Rusty’s are winningly vivacious in their own right, Michael Wells sings up a country music storm as Cowboy Bob, Biteng (Jeter), Ho (Garvin) and Riskin (Bickle) are boy-band adorable as Ren and Willard’s backup-dancing teen posse, and Heie and Rogers show off their own song-and-dance talents as Chuck henchmen Travis and Lyle.

Colony Theatre vet Cedar invests Shaw with equal parts passion and paternal love, De Lano makes for the most incandescent of preacher’s wives, Vigil is the kind of supportive mother any teenager would be glad to call Mom, and SoCal treasure Lisa Dyson, Ceron Jones, Karen Macarah, Cindy Pearl, and Christopher Robert Smith complete the grown-up lineup to entertaining effect.

Still, if there were ever a musical whose ultimate success depends on its lead performer, Footloose is that musical, and though Fritz is a talented singer-dancer and his Ren is as likable as can be, the role requires a stronger physical presence and more finely honed acting chops than the Baltimore native brings to this most challenging of roles.

Music director Ron Barnett elicits topnotch vocals from the entire cast while conducting and playing keyboards in the show’s rocking five-piece live band, and Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski provides an expert sound design mix and assorted effects.

Justin Huen has designed a set capable of transforming into multiple locals, though frequent script-necessitated shifts in and out of the Shaw family kitchen prove time-consuming, and while Huen’s lighting design is as vivid as can be (and makes Azucena Dominguez’s costumes look all the more colorful) it does tend to wash out Gabrieal Griego’s scene-setting projections.

Footloose The Musical is produced by Panic! Productions and BarCinBoo Productions and Katie Woener is assistant to the producer. John W. Calder III is production stage manager and Holly Titchen is assistant stage manager and properties master. Chapman is assistant choreographer.

Casting is by Michael Donovan Casting, Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Ken Werther is publicist.

Having seen and raved about Footloose The Musical up at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center last April (and in particular about its triple-threat lead Thomas Whitcomb), I was thrilled to hear that it was going to be reprised at the Colony. Though still a crowd-pleaser, Footloose 2.0 doesn’t doesn’t end up quite as wonderful the second time around.

Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street, Burbank.
www.colonytheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
March 2, 2024
Photos: Ashley Erikson

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: BarCinBoo Productions, Colony Theatre, Dean Pitchford, Los Angeles Theater Review, Panic! Productions, Tom Snow, Walter Bobbie