’80s revival

Maine State Music Theater cuts Loose

By Gibson Fay-LeBlanc

Maine State Music Theater’s Footloose plays through August 11 at Bowdoin College’s Pickard Theatre in Brunswick. Call 725-8769 for more information.

FANCY FREE: Michelle Kittrell’s Ariel is wooed by Joe Machota’s Ren.

At first glance, the adaptation of Footloose for the stage looked like an attempt to take advantage of ’80s nostalgia to make a few bucks. The 1984 film and its soundtrack are a touchstone for ’80s kitsch, right on down to Kevin Bacon’s tight jeans and black leather boots. Dean Pitchford, who wrote the original screenplay and collaborated on most of the songs, might very well have seen dollar signs when he brought it to Broadway. However, the show’s depiction of adolescents who want to revel in their angst through dance, and adults who want to control their progeny’s sinful urges, is particularly relevant right now.

In his director’s notes for Maine State Music Theater’s production, Jerome Vivona cites an AP story from April describing a small Virginia town that outlawed dancing because, “It imitates sexual contact.” He could have gone even a step further. In the past few years, schools and school districts across the country — not to mention parents — have struggled with adolescents over the sexual nature of “freak” dancing. (If you don’t know what it is, find a channel with R&B or hip-hop videos and watch for five minutes.) Many parents, teachers, and community leaders believe freakin’ goes further in promoting sex than dances of previous generations and have pushed to have it outlawed.

But, for those of you who just want to revel in the ’80s, Footloose is all about the era — and the vehicle is the music. Hearing songs like the title track and “Almost Paradise,” I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or crawl under the seat when I realized I knew most of the words.

The best parts of MSMT’s production are the moments when those on stage make fun of the ’80s-ness of the show while also celebrating it. In Act One’s “Somebody’s Eyes,” a few of the girls from the local high school teach newcomer Ren McCormick (Joe Machota) about small town life while a dreamy Hall & Oates video happens around them. A portrait of President Reagan with moving eyes floats by, a lamp has a head where the bulb should be, and the shapes of townspeople watch and move mysteriously behind a scrim.

For “Holding Out for a Hero,” Michelle Kittrell, as preacher’s daughter Ariel Moore, does a damn fine impersonation of singer Bonnie Tyler (of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” fame). If a glitterized, smoke-machine-filled King Arthur scene and sword fight for Ariel’s love between Ren and bad-boy boyfriend Chuck Cranston (Tony Yazbeck) doesn’t scream ’80s, I don’t know what does. Another highlight is the comic performance of Kirk McDonald as Willard Hewitt, the stereotypical good-hearted, dumb hick. During “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” another ’80s standard, Willard’s attempts at dance take white-man’s overbite to a whole new level.

MSMT deserves some props for snagging performers like Kittrell; Ann Arvia, who plays Ariel’s saintly mother; Jené Hernandez, who plays Ariel’s friend and belts out “Let’s Hear It . . .”; and Machota, among others. It’s a nice mix of actors and actresses with credits from national tours and Broadway and those with more local and regional experience.

They help to make plausible Footloose’s undertone of seriousness. Hints of hidden sexual abuse and domestic violence in “Somebody’s Eyes” and “Learning To Be Silent” effectively smash the image of the idyllic Midwestern small town. These numbers make clear that Ren’s mission to make dancing legal and accepted in Beaumont is bigger than teenage sexuality — it’s about combating repression of all kinds. They give the show legitimacy beyond the ’80s shtick.

Where Footloose falters is with some of its new material — songs Pitchford added for the musical that were not part of the movie. John-Charles Kelly as Reverend Shaw Moore does a nice job bringing emotion to “Heaven Help Me” and “I Confess,” and the lyrics are necessary for the plot, but they seem out of place. They stray from the established, and for some of us well worn, soundtrack. One wonders why Pitchford did not work in songs like Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head,” John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Hurt So Good,” and Shalimar’s “Dancing in the Sheets” that were on the original soundtrack, and try to have more of the plot happen with spoken lines.

Perhaps he didn’t want the show to be solely an ’80s tribute, even though that’s what carries the message of self-expression best. What is it that we so love — and hate — about the era anyway? After watching Ren and Ariel sing the parts of the lead singers for Loverboy and Heart, respectively, on “Almost Paradise” while overlooking the bridge where Ariel’s brother died 14 years earlier, then falling into each other’s arms, I think it’s the blatant schmaltz. It’s why so many loved Reagan. The veneer of unflinching romanticism, thin as it may be, is irresistible. Hearing them sing, “I dream that I can see forever in your eyes,” you don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or wretch. All three are appropriate.

Oh, I almost forgot, Dean Pitchford says you can freak if you want to.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc can be reached at riverbetweenus@hotmail.com.