On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 24, five Matinee Friends visited the Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre to see the teen version of “Footloose”. The theater is inside Scottsdale Fashion Square and can be difficult to find if one has never been there (behind the escalator at one end of the food court). And parking in the right place can be a challenge. But it was all worth it as we all greatly enjoyed this show.
We remembered the movie, but I kept being surprised to realize that song after familiar song actually came from this show! Also, at the beginning, I was thinking, “Oh, where is Kevin Bacon??!” this guy is NOT him. But by the second act, especially the teen playing, Ren was so relaxed and easy in his dancing and singing and throwing his whole body into the moves that I was “Who needs Kevin Bacon??”
All the leads were great. The female star was beautiful and had a lovely voice and could kick her leg up past her nose! All the kids were totally invested in their roles. The choreog- raphy was really good, especially when all the kids, at least 25 of them, were dancing on the relatively small stage at once. It was obvious that they had worked very hard to prepare for this show. Once again, we were very impressed by Teen actors!
