A time to mourn, and a time to dance

Pulaski High School has decided it’s just going to cut loose for its winter musical and bring back a 1980s classic with “Footloose.”

The musical, started in Broadway in 1998 and based on the 1984 film starring Kevin Bacon, opens Feb. 18 and continues for the next two weekends. Almost 100 students are involved in bringing the story to life, from the cast to the pit orchestra to the crews working behind the scenes.

“We have a lot of talent in our students this year, and we really wanted to highlight a lot of different performers,” said director Amy Tubbs. “The nice thing about the script is that a lot of kids get featured in different songs. Everyone gets a chance to shine. It’s not a show where four kids are shining.”

The story begins with city teenager Ren McCormack, who has grown up in Chicago, learning that he and his mother are having to move to a small town in the middle of nowhere called Bomont. Besides the normal culture shock that comes from putting a city kid in a country town, Ren is shocked to find out that dancing is actually illegal.

The ban on dancing is linked to the town’s minister, Shaw Moore, who lost his son in a car accident where four teens who were traveling to a dance were killed. Ren and some of his newfound friends at the high school, including the pastor’s daughter who hates Bomont and its conservative nature with a passion, plot to hold a dance in spite of the town council’s wishes.

“One of the things we found in the foreword of the script by one of the writers is that someone wrote to him, ‘If you replace the word “dancing” with “forgiveness,”’ that’s really what the story is,” Tubbs said. “You have a town where there’s a horrific accident, and four young people lost their lives on the way to a dance. Then the town preacher decides, no more dancing because we don’t want anyone else to be hurt.”

Tubbs noted that Ren gets to “heal” over the course of the show because his father left him and his mother, and so there’s a somber side to what appears on the surface as a bright story.

“A lot of times, we think of ‘Footloose’ as this action and dance, rockin’ sockin’ fun musical, but there’s kind a serious story about forgiveness and moving on and healing,” Tubbs said. “We’re trying to get that in our message, too.”

Although it didn’t occur to Tubbs when the school started preparing for the musical, she realizes “Footloose” brings a message to those who have stopped or delayed regular activities during the pandemic that, eventually, things will come back.

“It’s kind of nice to see the arts in particular come back to life again,” Tubbs said. “In all areas, the arts were severely shut down and not be able to perform for live audiences. It’s coming back to life, and this is a celebration of that, too.”

The musical includes a lot of classic 1980s tunes. Besides the titular “Footloose,” audiences will get to enjoy “Let’s Hear it For the Boy,” “Holding Out for a Hero,” “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)” and “Almost Paradise.”

While most high schools had to stop live theatrical productions during the first full school year of the pandemic, PHS was able to move its musical back to the spring, Tubbs said, but had to limit the audience and keep cast members physically distanced on the stage and masked. She said “Footloose” will be the first production where the school will be able to house a full audience again.

“It wasn’t a true performance. It was really empty, and it felt weird in here,” Tubbs said of the delayed musical in 2021. “Last fall, we were able to do our one-act plays, but this is our biggest first production, that’s for sure.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com