I’ve been keeping busy here at the ADVOCATE for about a month now and I was caught a little off guard when my son reminded me (yesterday) that I had volunteered to chaperone his class’ field trip (today). Well I worked it out and I’m glad I did. We went over to Bishop Lynch High School for a special performance of Footloose, the musical, which is running through this weekend. (Here’s a calendar of remaining shows.)
It was refreshing to watch all that youthful energy up on the stage. Lynch, by the way, has a fabulous theater with great acoustics. Sure some of the actors were a little shaky and a few voices off key but there were some impressive performances—especially by Lindsey Sawyer, who played Ariel Moore, and Sara Greiner, who played her mother (and some really great dance moves by kids whose names I didn’t get). Plus, the cast stayed onstage after the show so all the field-trippers in the audience could ask them questions.
I was just a wee one when Footloose the movie came out, and I really didn’t remember much about it (except for one great scene where Kevin Bacon is run-dancing to the title track)… but the songs—man! Did the music bring back memories. I’m pretty sure my parents had the soundtrack and it got a lot of play around my house. So between the tunes and the inspiring script, I almost got a little teary eyed near the end. If you were around in the 80s, I suggest checking this out this weekend—it really is a lot of fun. Tickets are only $8. Take your kids if you must— My son, and his young buddies said that “it was a whip” (which is radio-show lingo for boring/the opposite of fun.) However, I suspect he liked it more than he let on—I heard him humming a Kenny Logins tune on the way out.
