King’s Theatre Glasgow – until 6th August 2022
Reviewed by Marcus
3***
I love going to a theatre I’ve never been to before, there’s beauty to be found in all theatres classic or modern. The King’s Theatre Glasgow has that iconic grand and ornate style. While a new venue is exciting, I also love seeing productions of shows I’ve seen before, like Footloose.
Footloose is a musical that many of us can sort of sing the hook of the song to, and it’s that film where dancing is illegal, I think. The one with Kevin Bacon, I’m pretty sure. It rings a bell, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. You know it’s a film, you know what it’s about, although you just forget what happens.
I have to admit that the show was a bit hard to get into, it took me a while to warm up and get on board with the action. This is purely personal taste as the mums in the audience were clapping from the second the beat kicked in. The energy in the audience was electric and it just goes to show how this is a feel good, get up and dance kind of show.
The cast really seemed to have a really fun time on stage, the vocals were incredible in the songs that you want to sing along to. Ariel (Lucy Munden) broke out singing ‘Holding Out For A Hero’, the audience went wild, and she took that song, made it her own and lit up the stage with a euphoric buzz. The Pastor’s Wife, Vi (Holly Ashton) had some of the slower songs, with the calmer tempo sometimes you lose the energy right after a few of the rock numbers, however her time on stage and singing was phenomenal she controlled the space and took us on an emotional journey. The Song ‘Learning to Be Silent’ sung by Munden, Ashton and Wendy Paver was such a powerful moment during the show and they gave it the attention it needed. There was a well-known face within the cast, Aston Merrygold from JLS, who played the role of Willard, the dopey best friend. He was really sweet to watch as a character, as they would say in the town of Bomont ‘Bless your Heart’. The performance was suited to the stage though I feel like his vocals were wasted, the only song where he is the star is ‘Mama Says’ and while it’s a good song I would have loved to have heard more of him, not to mention he’s got moves.
The cast also played Instruments for the show which in theory is a really nice touch, and they did a really good job with live music. However, to me it seems to go against the idea of this town banning rock music when the Pastor’s wife starts killing it on the sax.
Was it a good show? Yes. Will you want to sing along? Try not to. Will you be up on your feet by the end? Probably. The show was good, it didn’t blow me away, it didn’t take my breath away, but it did a good job of entertaining. I feel this is all down to taste as it wasn’t to mine, but everyone seemed to leave with a buzz