New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham
Stage Experience Presents:
Wednesday 20th - Saturday 23rd August 2014
12 days ago, approximately 120 young adults came together at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham to embark on a journey to put on a top quality performance of Footloose and good grief did they do it is style!
Stage Experience has been going since 2003 and has proven that it doesn't take months to put on a top quality production.
Footloose is a story of a Bible-Belt conservative American society who ban dancing. Surprisingly, this is actually based on a true story about Bible Belt Elmore City in Oklahoma who banned dancing and it was only allowed again after a group of High School students decided that they wanted a school dance and challenged the law back in the 80's.
Footloose centres around Ren (Matthew Russell) a Chicago lad who moves to Bomont with his mother Ethel (Molly Hope) after his father walked out on them.
We see him struggle to adapt to his new life and also see how the locals treat him. He discovers that dancing was banned from Bomont 5 years earlier by the Reverend Shaw Moore (Mark Shaun Walsh) and the local committee after the death of 4 youngsters who were driving home from a dance.
Ren decides that it is time for dancing to be put back on the agenda and along with fellow students tries to convince the Reverend and the committee to change the rules.
Along with this we see Ariel (Georgina Anderson) who is the Reverend's daughter and her rebellious streak by dating Chuck Cranston (Drew Rafton) as she tried to understand the change in her loving father after the accident 5 years previously. She is sick of all the rules and regulations but softens after meeting Ren - could this be a love interest?
Matthew Russell gave a sterling performance as Ren McCarmack. He can sing, dance and act (a triple threat as my acting friends say!). He had lovely stage presence and at the tender age of 15 gave a great performance.
Mark Shaun Walsh as the Reverent Shaw Moore was superb. His voice was powerful and his diction was such that you could hear every word that he sang. He created great emotion in some of his speeches.
The suffering wife of the Reverend, Vi Moore was played by Aneira Evans. She really captured the audience with her warmth and tender delivery of songs. You really felt as if this lady was hurting and lost.
For me, Willard Hewitt played by Callum Connolly gave some scene stealing performances and his song 'moma says' really stood out to me.
The whole cast were dedicated and had obviously worked extremely hard which was evident.
How the Director and Choreographer Pollyann Tanner manages to create such wonderment in such a short space of time and to such a high standard baffles me.
Her attention to detail and ability to get over 100 performers to learn such a varied amount of dance routines is just outstanding and I definitely deserves a rest after this run!
The set changes were carried out quickly and efficiently and there were no awkward gaps in the action.
The only slight issue with the production was the sound quality. At times it was difficult to hear the singing and dialogue over the music. It is always difficult to mic such a large cast and the live band of 8 did drown out some of the big numbers.
The technical crew were also made up from young adults and they all did a great job. It is always strange to say it, but when you don't notice the light, sound, set changes is when the backstage crew are doing a sterling job.
This is the second show I have seen by Stage Experience and it is yet another roaring success and I would definitely reccommend it to anyone. We really do have some extremely talented youngsters here in the Midlands.
The show runs at The Alex until 23.08.14 - Get your tickets now.
www.atgtickets.com
Tel: 08448 713 011
Review by Jayne Lunn
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