Review: FOOTLOOSE at Milwaukee Repertory Theater
We ended the show, with everyone else, standing up and dancing together, remembering how freeing it feels to do so.
What does seeing Footloose, the musical directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear, on stage feel like? It feels electrifying and nostalgic. Though I was born in the early 90s, my heart has always been in the 80s. I grew up with a mother who enjoyed the music, clothes, and scenes from the 80s—in fact, she wouldn’t play “little kid music” when my sister and I were young. Instead, she’d exclaim “this is real music, girls!” as she turned the volume up on the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, and Stevie Nicks. For that, I’m grateful.
As soon as the opening number started, Ren (played by the beyond talented Keyon Pickett) is seen solo on stage sporting a jacket that pays homage to the decade (thanks to Costume Designer Raquel Adorno), and dancing in the manner of Michael Jackson. In fact, throughout the show, he makes numerous references to the King of Pop himself through his choreography, even including a bit of the moonwalk. The energy at the start of the show carried on throughout, with some ebbs and flows to accommodate the more serious plot points: freedom, oppression, grief, and redemption. The musical is smartly reformatted for the current conversations of today, including a reference to God as a woman (“she”) that may or may not have reminded me of an Ariana Grande song. The show manages to balance a modern-day audience with the pure nostalgia of the original screen story and era.
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One of my favorite parts of the performance was an audience member responding to the question of who danced for the Lord in the Bible, “David danced for the Lord!”, making for an organic moment that the cast handled expertly. My favorite part of the evening, however, was reflecting on how lucky I was to see the musical of a film I only saw for the first time last year! Yes, this 80s fan had not yet seen Footloose the movie, and as fate would have it, Milwaukee Film screened it in their recent Film Festival. A friend urged me to go see it with her then, and I sat next to this same friend as we watched Footloose, the musical, for the first time. We ended the show, with everyone else, standing up and dancing together, remembering how freeing it feels to do so.
Footloose runs through November 1, 2026 in the Checota Powerhouse Theater at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
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