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Panic! and BarCinBoo Productions Present the Award-nominated Musical FOOTLOOSE: The Musical

Footloose: The Musical opens with cast of 29

The Cast Of Footloose: The Musical

Barry Pearl (Director), Michelle Elkin (Director & Choreographer) and Paul Panico (“Reverend Shaw”)

Footloose is about fun, dancing and the carefree nature of being a teenager. It’s a coming of age story or a struggle to fit in, but one that digs far deeper.

Show opens 4/22 and I couldn’t imagine a cast this talented. Hope you’ll come see this terrific cast sing and dance their hearts out!”

— Barry Pearl – Director

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, April 18, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — Contact: Sandra Kuker-Franco
Email: [email protected]

Panic! and BarCinBoo Productions

Present The Award-nominated Musical

FOOTLOOSE: The Musical

Footloose: The Musical, Produced by Panic! Productions & BarCinBoo Productions, returning to Califórnia, for 13 performances April 22 – May 14, 2023. Footloose is all about fun, dancing and the carefree nature of being a teenager… However, the show is honestly about so much more. Book by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, music by Tom Snow and lyrics by Dean Pitchford and Kenny Loggins, with indelible music, created from the 1998 musical, based on the 1984 film has truly stood the test of time. Footloose will open at Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.

For tickets: https://simivalleyculturalartscenter.thundertix.com/events/209730

Not only is Footloose a coming of age story or a struggle to fit in, but one that digs far deeper into the impact of death on people’s lives and how they choose to move on from it, or in this case, how they choose not to move on from it.

Video Trailer: https://vimeo.com/817859352

The award-nominated musical, with the memorable music of Kenny Loggins, is the story of Ren McCormack, a teenage boy from Chicago. He and his mother move to the small town of Bomont after his father abandons them. Upon arriving, Ren finds himself at odds with most of the town, including Reverend Shaw. The Reverend has convinced the town to outlaw dancing, which Ren finds unbelievable. With the help of Ariel (the Reverend’s daughter) and Willard (a country hick who becomes his best friend), Ren convinces the Reverend to let the teenagers dance, and in the process, helps the town to heal from a tragedy that affected them all.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Book: Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie

Lyrics: Dean Pitchford, Kenny Loggins, and others

Music: Tom Snow

Director: Barry Pearl

Director/Choreographer: Michelle Elkin

Music Director: Jeff Gibson

Vocal Director: Jan Roper

PSM: Rachel Goodman

Producers: Panic! Productions, BarCinBoo Productions, Inc., Paige Loter, and Alison Mahay

Publicity: Sandra Kuker PR (Sandra Kuker-Franco)

THE CAST

Thomas Whitcomb – “Ren McCormack”

Hannah Battersby – “Ariel Moore”

Tyler Marie Watkins – “Rusty”

Lily Targett – “Urleen”

Megan Vargas – “Wendy Jo”

Leonardo Cecchi – “Chuck Cranston”

Andreas Pantazis – “Willard Hewitt”

Cindy Pearl – “Betty/Lulu Warnicker”

Paul Panico – “Reverend Shaw Moore”

Vivien Latham – “Principal Clark”

Ron Rezac – “Coach Roger Dunbar”

Carson Christ – “Cowboy Bob”

Noah Heie – “Garvin”

Casey Ryan – “Jeter”

Hunter Uliasz – “Bickle”

Maxwell Oliver – “Travis”

Dylan Woodford – “Lyle”

Ronna Jones – “Vi Moore”

Renee Cohen – “Ethel McCormack”

Peter Miller – “Wes Warnicker”

Morgan Lavin – “Ensemble/Assistant Choreographer”

Mary Kate Chapman – “Ensemble/Assistant Choreographer/Dance Captain”

Kenneth Gary – “Ensemble”

MJ Mikesell – “Ensemble”

Margaret Mortimore – “Ensemble”

Jaeda Stone – “Ensemble”

Ayumi Matsumoto – “Ensemble”

Megan Holeman – “Ensemble”

Sasha Serdyukov – “Ensemble”

PERFORMANCES / TICKETS:

FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL will run Sat Apr 22, 2023 – Sun May 14, 2023.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, located at 3050 E Los Angeles Ave, Simi Valley, CA 93065. Performances are Friday 8:00pm, Saturday 2:00pm & 8:00pm (5/6 & 5/13) and Sunday 2pm. Tickets are $35 for Adults, $25 for Students & Seniors, and $25 for Children 12 & under.

For general information on the show, go to: http://www.panicproductions.org

Forward by the author, Dean Pitchford.

“I would often find myself being interviewed by a journalist or an entertainment reporter who would describe it as “that movie about the town where dancing is against the law.”

“Not exactly,” I would gently correct them. “Footloose is actually the story of a man who’s lost his son, a boy who’s lost his father, and how those two helps each other to heal.”

I felt it important to make that clarification because, first of all, nobody wants to see a movie about a town! We don’t come away from a memorable cinematic or theatrical experience remembering sidewalks and storefronts.

What makes a story live on in our consciousness is the characters we meet along the way. We remember how they changed each other.

And – when we’re lucky – how they changed us.

I met ‘With director Walter Bobbie, who had just won the Best Director Tony Award for his revival of Chicago. Walter asked me with whom I had met and what kinds of ideas they had proposed. And after I finished my report, Walter leaned in and spoke very quietly.

“Dean,” he said, “you must remember: at the heart of Footloose, you have written characters who are struggling with deep loss. If you tell that story correctly, you can scale your show up or down to fit any-sized venue. But telling the story of those people and their journey- in my opinion – should be your one, guiding principle.”

And in that moment, I realized that Walter was repeating back to me the mantra that I had shared with those reporters and journalists ten years earlier. The overwhelming international success – not only of the film but also of the soundtrack and all those songs – had obscured the story’s modest roots.

Because Footloose is – and has always been – a human-sized story.

This lovely director sent me a note she had written to read to her cast on their first day of rehearsal.

She wrote (and I’m paraphrasing here) something to the effect that, “as you read through your script, make this simple substitution: every time you see the word ‘dance,’ substitute the word… ‘FORGIVE’: So when you read a line like ‘Who’s ready to dance?!,’ hear it – in your mind as, ‘Who’s ready to forgive?!'”

That recommendation sent a chill up my spine. Because this director – by simply swapping one word for another – had returned Footloose to being the tale I had envisioned from the start – a journey of forgiveness and redemption, a story of healing and uplift.

How could we ask for more?” — Dean Pitchford

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Sandra Kuker-Franco
SANDRA KUKER PR
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Rehearsal Trailer of Footloose: The Musical



Originally published at https://www.einpresswire.com/article/628508962/panic-and-barcinboo-productions-present-the-award-nominated-musical-footloose-the-musical

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