Footloose the Musical

Footloose is about as predictable as they come with its seen-it-a-million-times-before storyline and not so spontaneous musical numbers.

The set is nothing spectacular and the costume designer seems to have a passion for fishnet tights and hotpants.

The plot in short, is that country town Bomont has banned public dancing following the death of some of its teenagers in a road accident on the way back from a dance.

Teen Ren McCormack then moves to the town and sets about changing the law.

You'll see an all singing all dancing cast and recognise a few songs from the eighties, one of the standouts being 'holding out for a hero'. Karen Bruce's choreography unquestionably makes the show, as your eyes are glued to the stage whenever there is a dance number. Unfortunately the show is let down its by the two leads.

Chris Jarvis can no doubt move around the stage very well but his singing is weak and at times in the dialogue you can hardly make out what he is saying.

Rachael Wooding's Ariel is possibly one of the most irritating characters I have ever had the misfortune to watch. She flounces around the stage in tiny hot pants, pouting and flicking her hair every five seconds and gives you the almost overwhelming desire to jump on stage and slap her. Like Jarvis she lacks heavily in the vocal department but her dancing is also average when compared to some of the others on stage. You are then led to the conclusion that she got this part on the basis of being blonde and exceptionally thin.

Both are shown up by Cassidy Janson, Taylor James and Richard Taylor Woods who are all wasted on supporting roles and are far more deserving of the leads.

Cassidy Janson as rusty, belts out her solo 'lets hear it for the boy' and Taylor Woods is equally impressive singing 'the girl gets around'. The star of the show though is the well-timed comic performance of Taylor James as Willard. the scene in the country and western bar where he is taught to dance and the rousing "Mama says" will have you in stitches.

Whilst most of the musical and dance numbers are exciting, some get very tedious. You can hear people around you groan every time the kitchen table is brought on for a scene in the Moore's house. This usually leads to a drab vocal solo by either Ariel's mother or father played by Marilyn Cutts and Oliver Tobias. Both admittedly accomplished vocalists but unfortunately extremely dull.

The 'somebody's eyes are watching you' trick where Ren is followed around by Ariel's friends for the greater part of the show also begins to grate on your nerves after the fifty seventh time of them doing it.

The worst however, has to be the Ren and Ariel duet "Paradise"- a song that the phrase 'pass the sick bag' was coined for. The special effects man seems to get a little enthusiastic with the smoke machine and covers the stage so we can barely see them. Unfortunately it has no effect on the sound and we can still hear them screeching away. Better luck next time.

I won't even go into the atrociously bad American accents, as quite frankly you have to hear them to believe it.

Footloose is entertaining if you take it for what it is - a cross between Grease 2 and Clueless, with even worse acting. It does however have some brilliant choreography and some of the dance numbers alone are worth the ticket price.