Footloose
★★★★☆ Vigorous
Festival Theatre: Fri 18/Sat 19 July 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Dancing onto the Festival Theatre stage with boundless energy and enthusiasm, The Beyond Broadway Experience presents a Footloose that is a showcase of Scottish talent and training, an invigorating look into the up-and-coming generations of musical theatre performers.
Based on the 1984 film of the same name, Footloose tells the story of Chicago teen Ren McCormack, who loves to dance, moving with his mother to the small town of Bomont after they are abandoned by his father. Ren quickly discovers that Bomont is nothing like Chicago, and that after a tragic accident several years before, dancing has been outlawed. Not that this will stop Ren…
Bobby Duncan (Ren) and Rhianne McAllister (Ariel) in Footloose from the Beyond Broadway Experience. Pic: BBE
The Beyond Broadway Experience is a programme for children and young people aged 8-25, where the two hundred strong company of Footloose have rehearsed intensively for only two weeks before opening the show.
Under the direction of Murray Grant, Drew Gowland, and Malcolm J. Burnett, the company have turned out an impressively polished production, integrating strong performances from the full spectrum of its age range throughout.
time and attention
Grant also choreographs, as part of a team including Laura Proudfoot, Sarah Kerr, Kieran Walsh, and Frazer Beckles. Such a huge ensemble naturally requires a great deal of time and attention to wrangle, and this team have pulled it off.
Harry Aspinall (Reverend Moore) and the Beyond Broadway Experience’s Footloose company. Pic: BBE
Best when it breaks away from its tendency to rely on triangle formations of large groups, the production’s choreography is dynamic and interesting, accessible to the ensemble at large while allowing many moments for performers with more advanced dance and acrobatic training to shine.
Under the musical direction of Linda Steward and Greg Davidson, the company fill the Festival Theatre with powerful, well-balanced sound and crisp diction. There are a few pitchy moments, but the vast majority of the show is right on tune, with some exceptional performances among the principal cast.
maturity and depth
Harry Aspinall and Kirsty Montgomery as Reverend Shaw Moore, the driving force behind the banning of dancing in the town, and his wife, Vi, deliver performances beyond their years in two of the few adult roles in the cast. Vocally and emotionally superb, they tackle the complexity of the Moores’ relationship with astonishing maturity and depth.
The Footloose company. The Beyond Broadway Experience. Pic: BBE
Rhianne McAllister blazes through the production as Ariel Moore, bringing nuance and an excellent physical performance to the rebellious preacher’s daughter, struggling with more than just a strict father.
McAllister is wonderfully partnered by Bobby Duncan as Ren McCormack, dancing his heart out with an energy that never flags. Ren must by default be an excellent dancer, and Duncan has the chops, along with a strong vocal performance that only falters slightly in its falsetto moments.
a bundle of energy
Millie Wilson’s Rusty – best pals with Ariel – is a bundle of energy and belted joy, balanced by a haunting rendition of Somebody’s Eyes, in trio with Wendy Jo (Jess Taylor) and Urleen (Alexandra Bruce Dickie).
Huck Whittle (Willard) and members of the Footloose company from the Beyond Broadway Experience. Pic: BBE
Opposite Rusty, the good natured country hick, Willard, is played with endearingly awkward charm by Huck Whittle, earnest and supportive of Ren, even if it takes him a little while to warm up to actually dancing.
Elsie Kinyua is a pint-sized powerhouse as Betty Blast, owner of the burger joint where the kids hang out. She breaks up a fight between Ren and Ariel’s boyfriend Chuck (Lewis Boyd) with fierce command and strong physical presence, utterly believable in her role.
commanding
A few giggles sweep the auditorium at her first appearance and the contrast in size between Kinyua and the older performers, but they’re quickly replaced by cheers and applause at the end of her commanding scene.
Bobby Duncan (Ren) and the Footloose company from the Beyond Broadway Experience. Pic: BBE
Kinyua represents an aspect of this Footloose that is exceptionally well done: casting some of the younger and smaller actors into speaking roles alongside their elder and taller counterparts, treating the differences as inconsequential. It’s a testament both to the young actors in those roles, and to their cast mates.
In the same way that the scariness of a villain is enhanced by the reactions of the characters around them, it’s the cohesive work of the ensemble that supports these youthful actors into the full realisation of their much-older roles.
a slick, polished production
While the show has a few missteps — stylistically jarring projections, moments of stage combat that cry out for a fight director’s attention, the same spotlight technique for every male dancer— it is by and large a slick, polished production that makes great use of the scores of young people to whom it offers a stage.
Dancing is not a crime, and neither is enjoying every moment of this Footloose.
Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes (including one interval)
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT.
Friday 18/Saturday 19 July 2025
Evenings: 7:30pm; Sat mat: 2:30pm.
Run ended.
ENDS
