It is becoming a regular thing now to take cult movies and to create musical theatre, such examples in recent times being Witches of Eastwick, Saturday Night Fever, The Full Monty and Fame so it should be no surprise that this eighties movie has been given the same treatment.

The storyline is fairly accurately retained and, unlike some, so are most of the well-known songs from the film also, including Holding out for a hero, Let’s hear it for the boy and of course, the eponymous Footloose.

The UK premier of this show was in early February and now about 1/3 of the way through the tour the cast are as would be expected well versed in their roles. Their enthusiasm, together with no little talent, oozed from every pore, matched only by their sweat during some of the most energetic and athletic choreography I have seen for quite sometime.

Set in a small town no one‘s ever heard of called Beaumont, the place where Ren McCormack (Chris Jarvis) and his mother, Ethel (Verity Betham) are forced to move to on the break up of their family. Beaumont is ruled by Reverend Moore (Oliver Tobias), and his word seems to be law with everyone except his daughter Ariel (Rachel Wooding).

Ren struggles to come to terms with his new environment, not least that Beaumont law does not allow dancing in any form, following a tragedy that occurred some years before. He ably abetted by Ariel, his friend Willard Hewitt (Taylor James) and Willard’s would-be girlfriend Rusty (Cassidy Janson) visit another town so that they can experience the wonders of dancing.

Thus inspired Ren sets out to change the local laws banning dance in Beaumont, leading to further problems for his family and getting even further on the wrong side of Rev Moore. Following the unsuccessful attempt to sway the local council, Ren pleads his case personally to the Reverend. His arguments are further backed up by Vi Moore (Marilyn Cutts) and finally the Reverend gives his blessing for the High School dance to go ahead. And then some!!

The performance I witnessed in Edinburgh was opening night and as with all opening nights there were some technical difficulties, especially with the sound initially. Once this was cleaned up I could really appreciate the excellent standard of singing that was on offer. I feel it only right to single out one singer, Cassidy Janson. Her voice was absolutely stunning.

I’ve already mentioned the high standard of the dancing, but Chris Jarvis and Taylor James particularly impressed. There were some very clever devises used in both this and in the direction, just occasionally reminiscent of other musicals. In general it worked really well and was enthusiastically received by the packed house, most of which were on their feet for the ‘encore.’

Footloose is on tour until October, you can get full tour details on their website www.footloosethemusical.co.uk and if you want a good, fun night out the this could well be the place have it.