All bets are on kicked-off Sunday shoes this weekend at Marathon High School as the Performing Arts Center becomes the small town of Bomont, Utah for “Footloose: The Musical.”
The MHS Drama Club’s spring show follows the plot of the 1984 Kevin Bacon classic. When Ren McCormack (Dakota Mertyris) finds himself uprooted from the bustle of Chicago to the podunk map dot of Bomont with his mother Ethel (Soph Hutchins), he’s shocked to discover the tiny town’s remote location isn’t even its biggest drawback. Thanks to a campaign backed by the straight-laced Reverend Shaw Moore (Cameron Van Hoose) years ago, the simple act of dancing is now illegal in a place where there’s already nothing to do.
But in a town where most of his classmates seem to have given up on rebelling against Shaw’s iron fist, Ren soon finds a muse of sorts in the one person willing to buck the reverend’s trends: Shaw’s own daughter, Ariel (Ella Dunn). Reluctantly backed by his newfound best buddy in the hilariously dimwitted Willard (Adrien Holdinga), Ren hatches a plan to confront the town council and reintroduce the joys of music and dance to Bomont.
Under director Rhonda Crutcher, “Footloose” is the last hurrah of sorts for a senior-heavy cast and crew, several of whom have graced the MHS stage or worked behind the scenes since sixth grade and adapted to the styles of three club directors in as many years.
“I feel like we’re all adding as much as we can possibly give for the last time on stage,” said Rylee Seligson, who plays Urleen, one of Ariel’s best friends.
“One last big whoop – we’re leaving it all out there,” added Mertyris.
While the group of principal actors and tech leads who’ve sat down for interviews with the Weekly has gone largely unchanged over the last two years, the crew said their responsibility to pass the reins to a large group of underclassmen and middle schoolers in the 30-plus-member club is one they’ve taken seriously, just as their predecessors did in years past.
“I got this far mostly because of the seniors above me who really pushed a lot of us who are now graduating to do what we love – to pursue this theater program, and to continue doing it,” said Zyan Wiggins, who plays Ariel’s bestie and Willard’s budding love interest, Rusty.
“I have a little mini-me co-dance captain in seventh grade, Gabbi Doering, and I’m so proud of her,” said Seligson.
“We definitely showed them that this is fun,” said Mertyris. “The most rewarding thing about this is that in every show, there’s parts where everybody is discouraged. But the best thing about it is to be able to watch everybody be able to succeed in the end – that’s how people find their love for theater.”
“When I first came here, when all of (the seniors) put on ‘Newsies,’ I was blown away, and I fell in love with theater,” Van Hoose told his classmates. “These guys are my rock, and every single one of them has inspired me so much.”
The curtain rises on “Footloose” this Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the MHS Performing Arts Center, with a final matinee on Sunday, April 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students, payable by cash or credit at the door.
