Creative Team:
Stage Adaptation Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, Music Tom Snow, Lyrics Dean Pitchford, Director Racky Plews, Choreographer Matt Cole
Cast:
Jake Quickenden ‘Willard Hewitt’, Darren Day ‘Rev Shaw Moore’, Joshua Hawkins ‘Ren McCormack’, Lucy Munden ‘Ariel Moore’, Holly Ashton ‘Vi Moore / Principal Clark’, Wendy Paver ‘Ethel McCormack / Betty / Coach’, Tom Mussell ‘Chuck’, Oonagh Cox ‘Rusty’
Supported by
Samantha Richards, Jess Barker, Ben Mabberley, Alex Fobbester, Ben Barrow, Anna Westlake, Lucy Ireland
This is a musical based on the 80s movie of the same name. The story is of a city boy who moves to a small bible belt town in the US southern states. When he gets there he finds it difficult to fit in. Especially when he realises the power the ‘grown ups’ have over the younger residents of the town, even to banning dancing.
So Ren decides to stand up to Rev Moore who is the real power behind the city and try to bring back some freedom to the school students.
Now this sounds a little serious, and it is based on a true story, but as anyone who has seen the film (or it’s much less successful remake a few years back) knows it’s a feelgood piece of popcorn cinema with (in the original at least) some banging 80s tunes including “Let’s hear it for the boy” “Footloose” and “Holding out for a Hero”, my personal favourite songs are “Mama Says” and “Almost Paradise”.
This cast is led (when I saw it) by Jake Quickenden who plays the comedic role of ‘Willard’ and Darren Day who plays the reverend. The whole cast were excellent and this is a fun, entertaining piece of musical fluff. Just what you need sometime, especially after the rubbish few years we’ve all had.
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