Footloose is a musical adaptation of the 1984, it debuted on broadway in 1998 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, running for 709 performances until 2000. It received Tony Award for best book of a musical, best original score, and best choreography.
The themes of this musical are:
Youth vs Authority-
The conflict in Footloose is the generational disagreement between the town’s conservative elders and the free spirited and rebellious youth, portrayed by Ren McCormack. The musical shows themes of freedom, self expression and breaking free from tradition and learning new ways of living!
The power of music and dance:
Footloose celebrates the power of music and dance as signs for personal and social development. It shows how music can bring a community of people together to challenge restrictive laws.
Musical Style and influence: The musical shows the style of pop, rock and country music, reflecting the styles of the early 1980’s, when the film was set.
Lots of the songs from the original movie were stage adapted and made into musicals such as, Holding out for a hero, Let’s hear it for the boy and, Footloose. There were some new songs added too, that set the vibe for the energetic choreography and moving themes of the musical.
Social and historical context:
The musicals themes of youth rebellion and the desire to be free reflect on societal issues, that happened in the 1980’s. During that time, American society experienced a cultural clash between the burgeoning liberal values of the young people ( which is shown in footloose through the music, fashion, and free expression) and the conservative reactions of the older people.
Rebellion and music:
In the 1980’s the youth culture was often seen as rebelling against the older people. The rebellious vibe in Footloose, is portrayed very well and it really shows you what those times used to be like and it gives you a sense of how the younger generation and older really did differ.
1980s era:
The musical is very heavily influenced by 1980s rock and roll, it gives the nostalgic look into the music and the type of dancing that was socially acceptable back in those days. In the 1980’s it was the era of people becoming more opinionated and speaking their mind, and also not letting laws dictate their actions. They started to rebel and become their own people and Footloose really shows the journey of this time, it really shows the process and it shows how the laws slowly became less strict.
Overall, Footloose the musical continues the story of rebellion against societal strains, framed by the social, cultural and musical influences of the 1980s rock. It’s all a mix of energetic dancing, music and rock and roll!
Footloose the musical looks into the 1980’s cultural climate, characterised by youth individualism and rebellion. During this time films like ‘The breakfast club’ and ‘Rebel without a cause’ came out and depicted young people’s fight against societal expectations. Footloose fits into these narratives, as Ren challenges the status Quo of his town.
The film and musical show the tension between small town conservative values and the energetic, desire for freedom. In the 1980’s the USA were experiencing a political landscape dominated by conservative ideologies. The difference between old traditions and new and liberal attitudes about personal freedom was a popular theme in culture.
I used chat Gpt to help me word some of these points, but it is my work.
Footloose was loosely based on a town in Oklahoma, called Elmore City. The town banned dancing since its founding in 1898, as they didn’t believe in it and saw it as a sin. The musical adaptation and the film’s plot is very dramatized but there are also some similarities such as, the senior class having to fight for a prom.
In the 1980’s the Aids epidemic was going around, many people called it ‘gay cancer’ before they fully understood what it was. After lots of people started to pass away due to this disease, somebody who passed away’s friends decided to set up a trust in his name to support those who are/have been affected by aids. They used this trust to also get more information about symptoms, so they could start to understand more about the illness and try to figure out how to create a cure. As more time went on, more and more people started to recognize and care more about the disease. Eventually, people started to make ‘gay rights’ a thing and gay people were becoming more important in society and it was finally allowed to be gay. People did not have to hide who they were and what they wanted to be, this relates to footloose quite a bit as, in footloose people had to hide the fact that they wanted to dance because it was against the law. When Ren McCormack came to town he challenged the towns law against dancing and won. He made the town council get rid of the laws on dancing and helped the residents in the town get what they want. They were finally able to express themselves in dance, which is very similar to what happened with aids. The aids epidemic and footloose have quite similar themes.
reference- Aids: History Of The Epidemic That Changed Britain | HistoryExtra
The character that I was first cast was Wes, Ren McCormack’s uncle. It is implied that Wes is married into the family, I am assuming that Lulu is Ethel’s (Ren’s mum) sister. I am also assuming that Wes is a law aboding citizen who takes the law very seriously, it seems like him and Ren do not get along in the script, as they have a quite shouty interaction in ‘somebody’s eyes’. Wes accuses Ren of being on drugs just because Ren backchatted. Wes overall seems like a very judgy and mean character and this would explain why Ren does not like him.
Another character that I was given was, Lindsay. Lindsay is only in the opening number, she only has one line but from what I gathered she seems like kind of a mean girl, I gathered this because of the way she says her line. Her line is ” Yeah he’s moving to some small town no body’s ever heard of.” The way that she says it, makes her sound like the classic mean girl in an American high school movie. I made sure to pull some dirty looks as I was saying this line to bring my thoughts on Lindsay to life.
I was also given the role of a teacher in the ‘I can’t stand still’ number. It was pretty easy to gather what my characteristics hd ad to be for this scene, as a teacher I just tried to make sure that I was telling students off for being late, skipping class etc. In the I can’t stand still scene the teachers do eventually loosen up and start dancing with the students, so I made sure that after everybody else started dancing I just looked at the other teachers beside me, and acted like I had no idea how to dance. This fit with the scene very well as, Bomont had laws against dancing so no body ever danced, I thought it made more sense to look like I had no idea what I was doing. There was also a bit in the dance where Ren goes to all the little groups and teaches them a dance step he used to do in Chicago, when he came over to the teachers, I did the step but acted like I lost my balance and fell into another ‘teachers’ arms. This also made the scene even more school like, as the ‘students’ in this scene started to make fun of me for falling which is what students would most definitely do if they saw their teacher fall over.
I had to assume what these characters were like and that is because I tried my hardest to research them but when you have an ensemble character it is proven to be impossible to research them. All of the websites focus on the main characters, it is also very difficult to make a characteristic up about them as they have very little to no lines. However, I tried my very best to add some characteristics to make myself stand out from the rest of the ensemble characters.
Plot Summary:
Act 1: Ren McCormack, a very lively and rebellious teenager, moves from Chicago to the small town of Bomont after his father left him and his mother. Ren is very shocked to find out that Bomont does not allow dancing, rock and roll and drinking, and to find out that there are actual laws against it. The reason for this law, was because the Reverend’s son passed away in a tragic accident which included partying, drinking and dancing. Ren eventually makes a friend called Willard, who is a shy teenager, he also makes friends with the Reverends daughter, Ariel who loves to rebel against her father. Ren struggles to fit in with the towns laws and overall vibe, he finds himself getting into quite a bit of trouble with the adults of the town who are also known as the town council. Ren proposes an idea to his classmates, he suggests that they fight to have the dancing law abolished. Act 1 ends with his classmates getting on board and being willing to support him.
Act 2: Ren faces the town council and tries his very best to win them over and make them change their minds, he argued that the Bible contains a lot of references to dancing as a form of celebration. In this act, the relationship between the reverend and his daughter, Ariel, comes to blows. The more that Ren kept on fighting his point, the reverend finally saw the wisdom in Ren’s POV and lowered his guard. He got rid of the dancing law and everybody was very happy and the high school kids threw a dance, symbolising a new start for the town!