It was a sold out show Sunday when I visited Lake Highlands United Methodist Church to catch the Footloose matinee. My own kids had participated in ACT musicals, all the way back to Artists of Christian Talent’s Y2K production of The Music Man, so I was anxious to see this year’s cast and crew of more than 50 neighborhood youth give their rendition of the peppy show with Kenny Loggins’ music and Kevin Bacon’s swagger. I loved it.
The singing, dancing kids are clearly having fun all around the action, and LHHS juniors Peyton Williams and Forrest Brown have chemistry as stars Ariel and Ren. Alex Moser is the judgmental Reverend, hell-bent on keeping music and dancing out of the town, and sophomore Amanda Fugate, a Booker T. Washington arts magnet student, is his long-suffering wife (they are shown in the photo here). Senior Emily Siegers plays the loyal but overwhelmed mom of Ren, and real-life preacher’s kid Thomas Thornton is hilarious as the friend with two left feet.
The show will continue this week, Feb. 21, 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. You can contact Paige Fugate, PaigeFugate@texashealth.org for tickets.
I snuck backstage to snap some pictures, and you can see my photo slideshow here.
