'FOOTLOOSE' Is 'Flat' At Theatre at the Center

When a professional theater in suburban Chicago bills a lone actor above the title, expect great things. I mean, it doesn't happen very often. In the opening seconds of Theatre at the Center's production of the musical stage version of "Footloose," now open in Munster, Indiana, the actor in question, Matt Raftery (starring as Ren), executes an impressive aerial move, half hip-hop and half gymnastics. The show explodes to an exciting start!

It's too bad that only some of the following moments, and a few of the full company of actors, come close to equaling this moment. Raftery himself, I am sorry to say, is not consistently impressive, and neither is the material the hard-working company is trying valiantly to bring to meaningful life. It is hard to know where to give the credit, and where to find the fault. Raftery certainly is a gifted dancer and an appealing actor/singer.  But things just don't add up here for this production as a whole, as much as one wishes they would.

For those who may not remember, "Footloose" began as a very successful 1984 film, which brought Kevin Bacon (he of "six degrees" parlor-game fame) to the height of his stardom. The movie also begat a million-selling soundtrack album. Not a musical film per se, it nevertheless seemed natural for adaptation into a stage musical, which was accomplished a decade ago by the same writing team that created the film (author and lyricist Dean Pitchford and composer Tom Ford). They were assisted by the show's Broadway director, Walter Bobbie, and carried along by hit songs that Pitchford wrote in the 1980s with music industry luminaries Kenny Loggins, Sammy Hagar, Jim Steinman and Eric Carmen.

The show opened on Broadway in the fall of 1998 and ran for 709 performances (a not unimpressive total); it was nominated for four Tony awards but won none. The songs that audiences already knew when they arrived at the Richard Rodgers Theatre ("Holding Out For A Hero," "Let's Hear It For The Boy," "Almost Paradise" and the hit title song) were also the ones they whistled on the way out. But the show's theme, that of moving on after grieving for a loss, is a universal one, and it still rings true. So, the show has its fans, and says some things worth saying.

But the theatrical script, with the movie's songs re-thought and mediocre new songs sprinkled on top in all the right places, holds two flaws which may be insurmountable. For you see, the setting of "Footloose" is a small town (called Bomont, and based on the real-life Elmore City, Oklahoma) where dancing is forbidden. That's a hard place to set a show in which audiences expect to see (and eventually do get to see) a lot of fun dancing.

Secondly, a lot of time is spent showing and talking about how rebellious the kids in the town are (curfew violations, motorcycles and the like), allegedly spurred on by Ren himself, a newcomer from Chicago. But all the kids want to do is have a high school dance-they aren't killing each other in turf wars, becoming addicted to drugs or fighting corporate corruption, for instance ("West Side Story," "Rent" and "Urinetown."). They aren't defying the draft ("Hair"). They really aren't all that rebellious, really, are they?

The show's real theme, recovery from loss, isn't made clear until the second act, by which time it's pretty apparent that the key adult characters just have to change their minds about dancing-not a compelling thing for a director to stage, actually. Somebody who's been saying "no" for a while can just say "yes," even if they do explain themselves and gallantly work through what's been holding them back. But please, authors, a little more dramatic tension would be lovely. Maybe a song about what's been lost.......

To be fair, there is a lot of tension depicted in TATC's production-it's just not very high stakes tension for anyone other than the most shelteredly conservative among the audience. The extended sequences built around the song "Somebody's Eyes" work very nicely, and the dialogue scene late in the show between Raftery (as the fatherless Ren) and the stalwart, dependable actor Larry Adams (as the stubborn-but with good reason-Rev. Shaw Moore, sonless) is very touching and honestly delivered. (By the way, Adams sings his first act solo, "Heaven Help Me," with just the right amount of simplicity and beauty.)

But Raftery's Ren never gives the wary adults reason to mistrust him-he looks very much like the other kids in the town, and his acting style gives every impression that, just last week, he made a B on a geometry test at Chicago's Francis Parker School, in the heart of tony Lincoln Park.

His love interest in the TATC production, Andrea Prestinario as the Reverend's daughter, Ariel, looks older than Raftery and older than the three excellent young singer/actresses who play her best friends. But she does have great chemistry with everyone in the cast, and a killer high belt. Unfortunately, this leads me to the major technical flaw in this production-the sound of the music 

Both Raftery and Prestinario are repeatedly hampered during the evening by a sonic world which seems to favor the five-piece orchestra rather than the singers. This was especially and exasperatingly true during musical climaxes. There are no bad seats in the Theatre at the Center, but it was quite hard to hear many singers throughout the evening. And the orchestra's balance was frequently off during dance sequences as well-the drums drowned out the other instruments, and the synthesizer (this is 80s synth-pop, mind you) was virtually inaudible within the drums, piano and bass mix during the first act (I'm not sure I ever heard the guitar).  Perhaps these problems can be fixed, but after a week of preview performances these are disconcerting problems, to say the least. 

The best design element in the show was the costume design by Los Angeles-based Nikki Delhomme. The high school kids in the show really looked their parts-layered pieces, casual mixed with elegant, jeans, etc.-and the more repressed adults wore lots of floral cotton blouses, ugly pants and the like. The scenic design by Alan Schwanke evoked a rusting, aging town in its use of a huge upstage billboard, various hanging neon signs and a fire escape which doubled as a church choir loft. Libby Fandrei's props enhanced both the costumes and the sets.

Director and choreographer Stacey Flaster found some excellent supporting cast players to join the 21-person cast, including those three best friends-Rebecca Pink, Traci Allen and especially Donica Lynn, sporting a great pop voice and spunky line delivery as Rusty. As her good ol' boy boyfriend Willard, Robert Deason was surprisingly right, and as Ariel's no-good sometime bad-boyfriend Chuck, Kent Haina was pitch perfect and right on the money. Cory Goodrich brought a maternal warmth and a thoroughly professional glow to her tricky role as the minister's wife, Vi Moore.

Flaster saved her best contribution-her choreographic wit-for the show's final number, a reprise of "Footloose" itself. Every character in the show got to share not only a Soul Train Line moment of dance stardom, but each couple danced a different late-twentieth-century dancestep while coming downstage. These contrasts may have been too subtle for some to pick up on, but it was delightful to see them. 

So then, what can one say about a production in which only a half a dozen of the performers manage to rise above the second-rate material they've been given, and even then on a mostly inconsistent basis? It is true that the evening ends happily for all, and that the cast is likeable and well-schooled in their paces. There are moments of genuine artistry sprinkled among the banalities, and a handful of songs that everyone likes (though what we like is our memory of hearing these songs on the radio, not hearing them fresh in the theatre).

Many in the opening night audience seemed pleased enough with TATC's "Footloose," and on that basis I urge you to check it out for yourself. It's not bad by any means. It just seemed somewhat charmless, and lacking in a real engine to move it along. I, for one, was hoping for more. 

"Footloose" is now playing, Wednesdays through Sundays, at Theatre at the Center, in The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana, just 35 minutes from downtown Chicago. Tickets are 36$-40$; call the box office at 219-836-3255 or visit www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.  

Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow

Photos: Matt Raftery; Ensemble

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