Footloose Review of Winter Musical
On Wednesday night February 27th, I decided to attend the Cheshire Academy varsity production of the musical "Footloose" in the black box theater. This was a dress rehearsal for the actual performance that took place on the first weekend of March. "Footloose" was written by Dean Pitchford, and Walter Bobbie in 1998. An interesting fact about "Footloose" is that the musical came out after the movie in 1984. Many times it is the movie that is made after the book or play. For the Cheshire Academy production, notable cast members included: Tony Wang, Olivia Williamson, Aaron Luo, along with 10 graduating seniors.
"Footloose" is a musical play that many high school students can relate to. Ren McCormack is a teen from Chicago, who doesn't really fit in anywhere. Ren moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere. He loves to dance, but in this town dancing is illegal. This is because of Reverend Moore's son died in a drunk driving car crash after his prom. Instead of following this law, Ren finds a group of friends that also enjoy to dance, and they decide to fight for a change within the community. Throughout the play, Ren falls in love with Reverend Moore's daughter, and their relationship heavily revolves around dance. When the pastor finds out, he is very displeased. Ren and Ariel continue to see each other and fight the no dancing law throughout the play until at the end of the play, everyone in the town starts to dance in the town. A major theme through the play is change within the community.
This was the second performance I saw at Cheshire Academy that had the new stage setup. I believe that this new setup greatly improves the space utilized by actors on stage. The atmosphere of the performance was energetic, engaging, alive, and overall enjoyable to watch. During the opening scene I thought the song choice was a good one. It got the audience engaged right away into the play. When I looked around I saw many members of the audience shaking their head and tapping their foots on the ground. The Cheshire Academy varsity crew did a wonderful with the dance choreography, and singing. The songs were mostly sang in unison which I really enjoyed. I love how a collaboration of peoples voices sound when they sing together. Set changes during ends of scenes as far as staging, and costumes were executed flawlessly. The multi color stage lights that were used in many dance scenes also added a lot of flair to the performance.
All actors in the production did a wonderful job on stage. There were no noticeable hiccups from an audience's perspective. The only thing that was noticeable was a technical difficulty that happened right before any of the actors even started the performance. Once the actors came out of backstage they waited for the music to play. However, the music never came. They just stood on stage for a solid 2 minutes before the music started playing. I commemorate the actors because they knew exactly how to act by not panicking, but instead they did nothing while the technical crew resolved the issue as quickly as possible. This challenge was met head on, and the outcome is definitely something for the stage crew and cast to be satisfied with. It could've easily threw off all the actor for the rest of the play.
I thought that the dance choreography was great, and I could tell that a lot of practice went into putting on a solid performance. However, my favorite thing about the entire play was the small attention to detail that went into the performance. When Ethel McCormick came out for the first time, the way the music softly played in the background while she strongly delivered her line. This small part actually had a lasting impression on me for the entire play. It just seemed so professional! It actually reminded me of many important scenes in movies where there is fitting music behind an actors strong voice. All these elements made this musical one of the better plays I've ever seen at Cheshire Academy, and with a young returning cast, I am eager to see how this group will develope in years to comes!
"Footloose" is a musical play that many high school students can relate to. Ren McCormack is a teen from Chicago, who doesn't really fit in anywhere. Ren moves to a small town in the middle of nowhere. He loves to dance, but in this town dancing is illegal. This is because of Reverend Moore's son died in a drunk driving car crash after his prom. Instead of following this law, Ren finds a group of friends that also enjoy to dance, and they decide to fight for a change within the community. Throughout the play, Ren falls in love with Reverend Moore's daughter, and their relationship heavily revolves around dance. When the pastor finds out, he is very displeased. Ren and Ariel continue to see each other and fight the no dancing law throughout the play until at the end of the play, everyone in the town starts to dance in the town. A major theme through the play is change within the community.
This was the second performance I saw at Cheshire Academy that had the new stage setup. I believe that this new setup greatly improves the space utilized by actors on stage. The atmosphere of the performance was energetic, engaging, alive, and overall enjoyable to watch. During the opening scene I thought the song choice was a good one. It got the audience engaged right away into the play. When I looked around I saw many members of the audience shaking their head and tapping their foots on the ground. The Cheshire Academy varsity crew did a wonderful with the dance choreography, and singing. The songs were mostly sang in unison which I really enjoyed. I love how a collaboration of peoples voices sound when they sing together. Set changes during ends of scenes as far as staging, and costumes were executed flawlessly. The multi color stage lights that were used in many dance scenes also added a lot of flair to the performance.
All actors in the production did a wonderful job on stage. There were no noticeable hiccups from an audience's perspective. The only thing that was noticeable was a technical difficulty that happened right before any of the actors even started the performance. Once the actors came out of backstage they waited for the music to play. However, the music never came. They just stood on stage for a solid 2 minutes before the music started playing. I commemorate the actors because they knew exactly how to act by not panicking, but instead they did nothing while the technical crew resolved the issue as quickly as possible. This challenge was met head on, and the outcome is definitely something for the stage crew and cast to be satisfied with. It could've easily threw off all the actor for the rest of the play.
I thought that the dance choreography was great, and I could tell that a lot of practice went into putting on a solid performance. However, my favorite thing about the entire play was the small attention to detail that went into the performance. When Ethel McCormick came out for the first time, the way the music softly played in the background while she strongly delivered her line. This small part actually had a lasting impression on me for the entire play. It just seemed so professional! It actually reminded me of many important scenes in movies where there is fitting music behind an actors strong voice. All these elements made this musical one of the better plays I've ever seen at Cheshire Academy, and with a young returning cast, I am eager to see how this group will develope in years to comes!
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