I dare you not to feel the urge to kick off your Sunday shoes and cut footloose to the 1980s hits and new-for-Broadway tunes featured in Inland Valley Repertory Theatre’s crowd-pleasing revival of Broadway’s Footloose the Musical, the most irresistibly finger-snapping, toe-tapping show in town.

If you’ve ever seen the 1984 movie smash of the same name, you’ve heard of Bomont, the Midwest town where recent Chicago transplant Ren McCormack (Micah Munck), discovering to his dismay that it is against the law to dance, takes it upon himself to secure for himself, his high school classmates, and indeed the entire town of Bomont their all-American freedom to bust a move.

The ‘80s Hollywood classic that started it all introduced the world to a heaping helping of Top 40 hits, including the title song, “I’m Free,” “The Girl Gets Around,” “Holding Out For A Hero,” “Almost Paradise,” “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” and “Somebody’s Eyes.”

Fourteen years later Footloose made it to Broadway as a full-fledged musical, with most of the movie hits integrated into its story line and a bunch of new Tom Snow/Dean Pitchford creations added.

Like the movie, Footloose The Musical follows teenage Ren and his mother Ethel (Tiffany Berg McMahon) from America’s third-largest city to the sticks of Bomont, where the two have come to seek refuge after being abandoned by Ren’s good-for-nothing dad.

It’s hard enough for a Chicago boy to adjust to life in the boonies, but when he learns that dancing is illegal within city limits, it’s the last straw, and Ren determines to do something about it.

First, however, he must conquer the high school population, and so the fish-out-of-water newcomer turns himself into the boy all the other boys want to be and all the girls want to be bad with, particularly Ariel (Leilani Munck), the rebellious daughter of town preacher Shaw Moore (Patrick McMahon), compelled by a family tragedy to keep Bomont dance-free.

Abetted by his new best friend, the sweet but not-too-bright Willard (Marcel Almirantearena), and by Ariel’s best girlfriends Rusty (Sanlyn Carter), Urleen (Shayna Marie Mitchell), and Wendy Jo (Sydné Piatek), 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. It’s the getting there that makes it fun.

Director Frank Minano and choreographer Kylie Molnar bring out the absolute best from the entire IVRT cast, eliciting performances that sparkle with youthful exuberance and staging dance numbers tailored to make each and every one of Ren’s classmates look like pros whether they are trained dancers or not.

It helps enormously that the married-in-real-life Muncks have Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson looks, charisma, and chemistry, 6-foot-five-incher Micah singing and dancing up a storm while commanding the stage like nobody’s business and blonde beauty Leilani giving as good as she gets in scenes that sizzle from the moment the two characters’ eyes first meet.

Baby-faced Almirantearena is such a goofy, adorable charmer as Willard, it’s no wonder Carter’s sassy Rusty is smitten, and if there’s a sexier bad boy in or around La Verne than Jackson Marcy’s Chuck, I’d be be surprised.

Carter’s Broadway belt of a voice in “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” is matched by effervescent gal pals Mitchell and Piatek in the seductive showstopper that is “Somebody’s Eyes.”

And the Muncks aren’t the only marrieds sharing the stage at the Morgan Auditorium, Patrick McMahon delivering the production’s most powerful dramatic and vocal turn as a man of God who finds there are still lessons to be learned about life and Tiffany Berg McMahon not only making Ethel the mother any teen heartthrob would love to call Mom but duetting “Learning To Be Silent” with Amanda Colclough’s loyal preacher’s wife Vi to stirring effect.

Bomont High Schoolers David Carlen (Jeter), Michael Gallo (Travis), Patrick Geringer (Bickle), Joey Kolody (Garvin), and Daniel Velazquez I (Lyle) do some terrific harmonizing whether in “The Girl Gets Around” or in “Mama Says,” with Goldie Combs, Sarah Escobar Fountain (Cheerleader), Amelie Iavicoli, Olivia “Ollie” Jimenez, Carter Johnson, Cameron Blake Kaeni, Colette Keating, and Makena Magalong (Cheerleader) completing the student body to exhuberent effect.

Parents, teachers, and other assorted adult roles are in the capable hands of Dani Angel Bustamante (Coach Dunbar), Heather Chapman (Eleanor), Steven Didrick (Wes), DawnEllen Ferry (Lulu), Mia Mercado (Betty Blast), and Kyle Ward (Principal Clark), with JoeJoe McKinney’s Cowboy Bob earning special snaps for rockabillying the house with “Still Rockin’,” the entire cast vocalizing to prerecorded tracks under Ronda Rubio’s topnotch music direction.

Cameron Harris keeps Footloose’s set design to an effective minimum while lighting it with flair, and Mark Gamez’s abundant array of 1980s-adjacent costumes earn best in show where designs are concerned.

Hope Kaufman is assistant director and casting director.  Nick Galvan is sound engineer. Tylor Scott Jenkins is stage manager and dance captain. Jimmy Perry is assistant stage manager. Tom and Deb Ritrovano as props designers, Mark Mackenzie is in charge of set construction, and Neil Kulatunge and Wyatt Mills are production assistants.

Like Hairspray and Grease, Footloose is a high school musical I could see again and again, but not every company gets it as right as IVRT does out in La Verne. Don’t be surprised if you too find yourself wanting to jump up, let go, and cut footloose.

Ann and Steve Morgan Auditorium, 1950 3rd St. La Verne. Through August 2. Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:00.
www.IVRT.org

–Steven Stanley
July 19, 2026

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

Tags: Dean Pitchford, Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Tom Snow, Walter Bobbie