National Operatic & Dramatic Association London Region

Society : Bishopshalt ODS Production : Footloose Date : 5th December 2014 Venue : Bishopshalt School Report by : Tony Austin ______Report

I gather I was not the only adult who was not familiar with the stage version (or in my case any version) of Footloose when it was chosen a few months back as the next BODS production, although I had seen the image on the poster and the front of the programme on many occasions when passing the theatres where it enjoyed its West End runs. So my thanks to Bishopshalt’s new Head of Drama Michael Glen, Director, along with MD Stuart King, Choreographer Jane Gooch, Assistant Director Kerry Magee and Assistant Choreographer Rachel Briggs for their confidence in themselves, their Production Team and their pupils (who obviously hadn’t all just passed those theatres by), and for presenting their great production of this version of the teenage dream with its well-written dialogue and situation scenes to add to the BODS specialities of skillfully athletic dancing and superb singing, and to everyone in or supporting their fabulously talented cast.

Before getting onto the cast, I feel I must mention the technical support, which to me reached the peak of its achievement this year under Design and Technical Director Terry Sharp, responsible for the Set Design, its Construction (with Liam Why) and the Lighting Design (with Mark Fincham and Danny Hope) whose combined achievements we first saw as the opening scene in a sleazily lit Chicago Dance Club turned before our eyes into a brightly lit small-town church with seated congregation led by cassocked choir and projected stained-glass windows behind them. Congratulations to Stage Manager Chris Alaru and his Crew Diksha Bent, Ashleigh Merrett, Harry Calton, George Paine, Ruha Quraishi, Alex Walls, Shelly Kapur, Sian St Luce, Amy Browne and Mohomed-Hossen Farzanah on the speed and efficiency of their actions on that occasion and many others as the plot led us through a variety of school and home settings, the Burger Bar, the town council, a dance hall in another town (all with solid scenic indications, often enhanced with fine projected backings and distinguished by sensitive and accurate lighting changes, especially useful where the stage was split between two different scenes, as was often made possible by the novel forward stage extensions on either side of the orchestra), while a mystery permanent scaffolding structure USL revealed itself to be the railway bridge (complete with realistic echo – just one instance of Michael Smith‘s and Matt Thomas’s fine sound Design and Operation) where signs of love were shown and later confirmed. Congratulations also at this stage to Jo Hickey, Suzanne Duff and Ms Grieve on the props and their part in the production of the set, to Kerry Magee and Rachel Fincham for the co-ordination of the huge array of costumes and to Henry Lambert, Sophie Tompkins and Georgie Grieve for the operation of the follow spots.

The style, athleticism and co-ordination of the dancing of the Ensemble is always a highlight of the BODS shows, and we saw a fine example of it (with instantaneous freezes for solo singing) in the Chicago Dance Club to the title song, but how would they manage after the move to where dancing was banned in the town of Bomont? (What an odd American name, I thought, until I saw it printed as Beaumont in the programme, presumably from dictation!) Would it all be just like the fine choral singing and restrained swaying in the church? The ingenuity and control involved in attractively performed co-ordinated movements during numbers with virtually static feet and nothing which could count as dancing when changing group patterns (after a marching entrance) made a wonderful background for Somebody’s Eyes, while gym exercises gave a nice variation and the comedy non- dancing from five mixed pairs behind Holding Out for a Hero was superbly done by all. With the spell broken by Ren’s I’m Free, to end the Act, their feet were finally released for Act 2 when we enjoyed the superb country Hoedown to Still Rockin’ and understood the show’s title in Footloose.

As well as the characters who appear constantly through the show, Footloose provides the opportunity for instant (though passing) fame for members stepping out of the ensemble in a variety of ways, as for instance Daniel Brown, Oliver Hopkins and Chris Underhill (playing Bickle, Jeter and Garvin) who made a great hit when they harmonised, danced and posed in a knowing send-up of a country backing group for Mama Says. Much earlier and more seriously as Ren’s uncle and aunt Wes and Lulu Warniker, Oliver with Jennifer Carroll had helped to welcome him to their home town, along with Chris again as Council Leader Mr Dunbar (later putting over important dialogue in that role with impressive authority) and Georgia Lee as his wife, who as the school gym coach really struck fear into all the pupils with her bellowed instructions, although their press-ups soon stopped as she left the stage. Other authority figures were well played by Holly Hunter as the Cop, Rosie Healy as the School Principal and Celeste Williamson as Betty Blast, showing just how to keep order in her Burger Bar among much larger aggressive youths, while Daniel Teague, prominent in the dancing (or not quite dancing) came into his own at the Hoedown, leading Still Rockin’ with a great vocal and mimed guitar-playing before returning to the ensemble. Shamar Lewis-Stephenson as Chuck Cranston, existing boyfriend of the leading lady and disapproved of by her parents, never stood a chance once she and the leading man got together, but assisted by James Douglas and Jack Gregory as his happy-go-lucky friends Lyle and Travis (showing why they weren’t in the baseball team) pressed his suit while he could, incidentally giving away to her father that she wasn’t where he expected, but losing all hope after he punched her.

Leonie Hughes made a really beautiful Rusty, putting over her outgoing character with expressive dialogue and lovely singing, while chief assistant Loretta Balogun as Urleen also scored with her many solo lines spoken and sung, and with Sheena Raichura and Emmalee Etherington as Wendy Jo and Mary Jane, formed a believable set of friends and a great close-harmony group, superb, when supporting her in Somebody’s Eyes and Ariel in Holding Out for a Hero. Rusty’s great second Act solo with the girls Let’s Hear it for the Boy possibly didn’t get all the attention it deserved as on the other stage extension we were watching Dominic Potter as Willard and his hilariously varied attempts at learning to dance. But when he did learn, what a lovely and talented couple they made! Earlier, his awkward shyness with her had been shown perhaps more convincingly than his aggressiveness to the new boy in town, although that was soon to change to lasting friendship, his lines to the Principal in defence of his new friend being beautifully judged as was all his dialogue. And Mama Says, his brilliantly funny in character response to Ren’s Dancing is Not a Crime Rap, was a masterclass in how to put over and animate sung words, with “I thought of one more thing” expressed with real ingenuousness as the excuse for his well-deserved encore.

Adult roles in many teenage dream shows are often barely sketched, but not in this show where Tuvana Hizarci as Ethel McCormack and Dana Rimdjonoka as Vi Moore, the Minister’s wife looked and sounded like real mothers, expressing real emotions and concerns about their children and in Dana’s case pleading for her husband’s moderation as in the touchingly sung Can You Find it in Your Heart. Earlier, joined by Ariel (and shortly three young ladies I couldn’t identify as ghost singers) their Learning to Be Silent was another high point of music and emotional expression. And again completely convincing as an adult and concerned father, Andrew Franklin as the Reverend Shaw Moore delivered prayer and sermon as if accustomed to leading a congregation. His tempered reaction to finding his daughter associating with Chuck was belied when back home, where his “I’m not angry, but concerned” plainly indicated his anger and his difficulty in accepting his wife’s assurance that the infatuation would fade as had happened before. His tortured Heaven Help Me (If Heaven Can), delivered in front of tabs where he held the stage alone for minutes with every word sung clear and true (later reprised after discovering in a tight dialogue scene that both he and Ren were suffering loss) and his final recantation in his church sermon were movingly realistic. Superb!

Leading lady Monica Georgieve as Ariel, the Minister’s daughter, gave an accurate picture of disaffected youth, stomping around, ignoring her parents’ advice about her unsuitable relationship and unable to tell them, though she did tell her friends and us in a really rocking performance, that she was Holding Out for a Hero. With the leading man as the obvious candidate, the pair played a fine scene under the railway bridge, mirrored later for their gorgeous duet Almost Paradise when love blossomed properly. In between, her troubles over Chuck’s attentions and assaults were shown convincingly as were her arguments with her father, and she provided with perfect clarity the crucial information that her brother had been killed in the car crash which led to the ban on dancing, later adding the bible references to help persuade her father and the Town Council to lift the ban. A masterly acting performance to match the singing – and I haven’t mentioned the brilliant dancing.

But the show is all about Ren McCormack, a boy who could truly sing I Can’t Stand Still, uprooted from dancing in Chicago by reduced circumstances and missing his father who had left the family, learning only gradually that dancing was outlawed in Bomont (although you would think his uncle and aunt who lived there might have told him), a complex character beautifully played by Shane David-Joseph. Confidently showing his character’s lack of confidence, ensuring we understood every word of his dialogue including the faux pas (plural) while making everything sound natural, and sensitively showing his developing feelings for Ariel, his first Act performance peaked in the gym as he persuaded the class to join him in celebrating the glory of dance in I’m Free. More fine dancing and singing in the second Act including the Almost Paradise duet, but they were put in the shade by his later scenes trying to get the Council to lift the ban, put over as if he was making it up on the spot (with hesitations and a panic as he couldn’t find one of the biblical references to quote) and sounding to us conclusively persuasive. And when that persuasion failed, after advice from his mother (and remembering what Willard’s Mama had said “Once you climb up a mountain you can’t back down”), his further brave approach to the Minister and their discovery of their shared loss, equally important to each of them, was beautifully argued and this time successful as the ban was lifted and we saw the whole cast dancing and singing their hearts out – and really Footloose!

None of it would have been possible, of course, without the fabulous sounds made by BODS seven- strong professional orchestra, in this instance properly called a Rock Combo, I believe, which, led by MD Stuart King on keyboard, also included current pupil Daniel Simpson on a second keyboard and chimes, as well as former pupil Conor Mangan, whose presence on guitar I regret I have failed to acknowledge for a number of their previous musicals. Great work from them all.

Sincere thanks to everyone concerned from my wife and myself for this superb performance of an exceptionally fine show, yet another of our pre-Christmas treats provided regularly each year by BODS, and best wishes to you all for Christmas and the rest of the school year!