Everybody cut loose!

Stage Adaptation by DEAN PITCHFORD and WALTER BOBBIE
Based on the Original Screenplay by Dean Ptichford
Music by TOM SNOW Lyrics by DEAN PITCHFORD
Additional Music by ERIC CARMEN, SAMMY HAGAR, KENNY LOGGINS and JIM STEINMAN

Produced by special arrangement with Rodgers and Hammerstein

Based on the movie of the same name, FOOTLOOSE opened on Broadway in 1999 to a scorching hot reception.

This dynamic, energetic and poignant story debates common personal and social issues we face everyday. What happens when communication between generations breaks down? What is the result when freedom of expression is repressed? Can a community survive if it’s unable or unwilling to face issues head on?

Frustrated by typical adolescent growing pains, Ren gets more than he bargained for when his mother uproots him from his life and friends in the big city of Chicago and moves to the small farming town of Bomont. There he discovers the Reverend Shaw Moore has banned dancing, an act illustrating the control a single man exerts over the entire town. However, the local preacher is dealing with his own issues of lossand isolation. When Ren challenges the town’s outdated mores and ideals, both he and Rev. Moore wind up on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment.

 

Artistic Director's Notes In all of life there is an ebb and flow; the tide advances and recedes on the shore; our lungs rise and fall with each breath; our most basic life form, the amoeba expands and contracts continuously. There is a basic flow of our organic energy. It was in looking at FOOTLOOSE that from lesson of an experiment done on the amoeba came to mind. The amoeba was pricked with a 'pin' and as a result it contracted. After a moment, it resumed its movement. As the experiment progressed, it took longer and longer for the amoeba to resume motion until ultimately it tightened into a ball, never to move again. With each painful moment, physical or emotional; each hurtful comment, stress or loss; we recoil, and we become rigid. At these times we are less able to handle, to absorb and process. FOOTLOOSE's Bomont is a town whose resistance has been worn down by enormous grief and Reverend Moore's inability to process his. Bomont is in a state of rigidity resulting in a frustrated energy that leads to suspicion, gossip, and hostility. It is important in our lives to find coping mechanisms to 'acknowledge and release' all types of affronting situations so that we might breath easier and live in harmony.