I don’t really watch a lot of older movies, so I had not seen Footloose when I went to see the show. As someone who tends not to enjoy older movies/musicals, I was delightfully surprised as to how well the show held up and still applied today. 

The show itself is fairly well written and it mostly avoids the insensitivity jokes that were common at the time. It also beautifully handles sensitive topics like religion, sexuality, and all-consuming grief during a time that those things weren’t widely talked about. Layered in the midst of all of this is original music that fits seamlessly into the show, so much so that I can’t imagine Footloose without the songs.

It is fairly obvious that the show was adapted from a screenplay just due to the sheer amount of set changes that occur. There isn’t a single moment in the show that I feel was lacking enough sets to properly set the scene, and the sets were also craftily designed in that most of them were built and reusable for multiple different settings. This was an incredibly smart move on the part of the set designer and director, and their ingenuity was mirrored in the stage crew, who handled the transitions effortlessly. 

Another area the show isn’t lacking in is costuming. Every person on stage probably had at least three distinct costumes, with the leads probably having more than that. An often forgotten piece of the on-stage world is that every item of clothing that appears on stage was picked by someone off stage. Whether people are ready to admit it or not, Footloose is now a piece of history in terms of costuming. I doubt many people were able to bring clothes from home that would be fitting to go on stage with them, so the sheer amount of costuming in this show is truly impressive. 

Finally, the people on stage are really good at what they do and are truly a lot of fun to watch. Acting isn’t as simple as saying things on stage, so it is incredible that everyone on stage had a believable performance that was a lot of fun to watch, especially seniors Nick Jepson and Sloane Markin, who are both really expressive and definitely embody their lead roles incredibly well.  Overall, Footloose is a musical that I wouldn’t want to miss. The remaining dates for the play are November 18th and 19th at 7:30 pm and the 20th at 2pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.pndrama.ludus.com.