'Footloose' warms the heart and lightens the sole at Chanhassen

To paraphrase Funkadelic, free your mind and your feet will follow.

"Footloose," the musical about high schoolers rising against the strictures of a small Southern town, opened Friday in an engaging revival at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. Director Michael Brindisi's production boasts delightful musical numbers punctuated by moments of well-staged, affecting drama.

Even as it warmed the heart, "Footloose" quickened the feet of at least one theatergoer who wanted to cut a step before launching into the cold February night. If the show also resonates mood-wise, it's because we can relate to characters who are thawing out from a time of constriction and fear. COVID-19 has taught us how to appreciate simple pleasures.

Adapted by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie from Pitchford's 1984 screenplay, the narrative tends a little toward the cornball, with characters and situations sketched broadly and a Prohibition-style story that would seem to stretch credulity.

Powerful Rev. Shaw Moore (Michael Gruber) has turned Bomont into a Taliban town that bans dancing and, it seems, fun. His absolutism, which also covers his family and against which daughter Ariel (Maya Richardson) rebels, springs not from pious readings of the Bible but from a wounding tragedy. Two decades ago, four youngsters drove off a bridge after partying. They died.

But new kid Ren McCormack (Alan Bach), arriving from Chicago with his divorced mom Ethel (Ann Michels), wants to change the Bomont status quo. Ren represents big-city freedom to peers such as slow cowboy Willard Hewitt (terrific Matthew Hall), Ariel's fast-talking best friend Rusty (Shinah Hey, mining bits of comic gold) and bookish smarty- pants Wendy Jo (standout Maureen Sherman-Mendez). Ren leads them to City Hall to try to lift the dancing ban.

Bach, who has been in "The Music Man" and three other shows at Chanhassen, embodies the role made famous onscreen by Kevin Bacon both physically and psychically. His Ren is sturdy and athletic, somersaulting off a prop and leaping from the floor in impressive displays of fitness. Bach also delivers in a beautiful tenor as he tries to convince the town that "Dancing Is Not a Crime."

Importantly, he has good chemistry with Richardson, whose Ariel is a rebellious preacher's kid. They find moving levels in their duet of "Almost Paradise," evoking a pitched emotionality. For her part, Richardson is a discovery — a young dynamo who holds her own as a gifted singer, dancer and actor on the big stage at Chanhassen with aplomb.

Both actors represent a new breed of talent taking center stage at Chanhassen. In fact, nearly a third of the 31-member cast are newcomers to the theater. The list includes Lynnea Doublette, who is refined and stately as Vi Moore, wife of Rev. Moore. Doublette teams with Michels and Richardson for "Learning to Be Silent," turning the lament into a powerful feminist statement.

The experienced players in the show hold their own. Gruber, a Broadway veteran with broad emotional availability, makes Rev. Moore understandable, if still over the top. Michels' Ethel is a weary soul while Ben Bakken gives bad boy Chuck Cranston, described by Wendy Jo as "a dangerous high school dropout-slash-drug dealer who was recently evicted from a trailer park," feral menace.

The town-size cast, which has a terrific ensemble, includes Tinia Moulder as Lulu Warnicker, John-Michael Zuerlein as her husband, Wes, inimitable Kersten Rodau as shop owner Betty Blast, Tony Vierling as Cowboy Boy and Rush Benson as Chuck's friend Travis.

The production has seamless transitions in locales evoked by Nayna Ramey's poetically simple set, which is lit with subtlety by Sue Ellen Berger. The humor of the show is heightened by Paul Toni's big-hair 1980s wigs and Rich Hamson's period costumes that include eye-popping short shorts and damnable boxy shoulder pads.

Guest choreographer Renee Guittar has crafted new dances that support the narrative while quoting social movements from today.

In his casting and interpretation, director Brindisi has underscored sometimes overlooked elements of the show. The original "Footloose" score included pop, country and metal, three genres that are rarely played on the same station, save for college and community outlets. But they all live together in this production, which includes a bit of well-executed freestyle hip-hop.

Such a gloriously celebration of movement, for physical and spiritual release, lifts "Footloose" to another bar.

'Footloose'
Who: Composed by Tom Snow with lyrics by Dean Pitchford, who co-wrote the book with Walter Bobbie. Directed by Michael Brindisi.
When: 8 p.m. Tue.-Sat., plus 1 p.m. Wed. & Sat., 6:30 p.m. Sun. Through Sept. 24.
Where: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, 510 W. 78th St., Chanhassen.
Protocol: Masks required. Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test.
Tickets: $53-$96. Call 952-934-1525 or visit chanhassendt.com for showtimes.