Everybody cut: ‘Footloose’ is about to be let loose

As Opening Night draws near, cast and crew of American Stage’s Footloose are putting in between eight and 11 hours of rehearsal every day at Demens Landing Park, on the bayfront.

The musical, based on the hit ‘80s movie, has a cast of 22. Plus a band of four musicians.

At the center of it all is the stage, built just for the occasion. The actual performance space measures more than 30 feet across and 25 feet deep, but it’s bookended by enormous “wings,” areas for the actors, singers and dancers to launch themselves onto the stage when it’s time, and for the two or three interchangeable sets-on-wheels to await their roll-on cues.

Taking everything into account, what the audience sees is nearly 100 feet long from one side to the other.

“It is a massive space,” said assistant technical director John Millsap. “It has to be.”

Footloose is the story of jimmy-legged Chicago teen Ren McCormack, who arrives in a small town only to discover that dancing is forbidden. Changing that becomes his mission.

It officially opens Friday (April 8), although there are pay-what-you-can preview performances Wednesday and Thursday.

“We’re totally going to be ready,” director and choreographer Shain Stroff said. “We finished our lighting cue-to-cue last night. The cast is in really good shape. I feel the most confident this year in all the park shows that I’ve done.”

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It’s the sixth “park show” for the Jacksonville-based Stroff. He was also in charge when Footloose, ready to start rehearsals, was scrapped in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic (the stage, Millsap explained, had already been built and waiting to be moved from the theater’s shop space).

“Coming back to Park kind of feels like putting the gang back together, after being out of the theater for a year and a half,” observed Production Stage Manager Rachel Harrison, who’s been with American Stage for a decade. “This is my fifth Park in six years, not counting our two missing years.”

Muscle memory, she said, certainly helps – although coming back this year wasn’t exactly like riding a bike. “It’s like riding a flaming tricycle through a thunderstorm,” she laughed, “and one wheel is wobbling.”

The first weeks of daily rehearsals took place indoors, in the American Stage facility.

For some cast members, Harrison said, it’s not always a smooth transition. “These are people who’ve been rehearsing inside for two weeks. And they come here for that first day, and they think – even the Floridians – ‘I’ve got this! No big deal.’

“And three hours into rehearsal, they are just exhausted. Because that deck gets hot in the sun. And that deck gets slippery when it’s a little wet. When we do a musical in the theater, we take that roof for granted.”

Keeping such a big production focused and continuously moving forward, offered Stroff, “takes a lot of organization, and a lot of people who are great at logistics.

“Logistics are super-important with park shows. You have all these pieces – somebody’s got to come in and make sure they all fit together like a nice little Rubik’s Cube. And that’s what this week is all about.”

The company has just completed “tech week” – setting the lights (which, of course, can only be done after the sun goes down), the sound and the costumes. They’ve also been spending long hours establishing tempos with the band.

Marinelli

Lea Marinelli plays Ariel Moore in Footloose – she’s the small-town girl, the preacher’s daughter, who gets caught up in Ren’s dance-happy reverie.

The New York triple threat, who relocated to Orlando a few years ago, had been cast in the role in 2020. “I’m just so honored to be back, after two years,” Marinelli said. “Four days before I was supposed to move down here, everything was pulled out from underneath us. The whole world was going kind of  crazy.”

At the park, even when the weather gets iffy, “Everyone’s just so relieved to be here. Positivity everywhere, you know?”

Alex DeLeo

Playing Ren is New York’s Alex DeLeo, whose Broadway credits include Wicked and Kinky Boots. He’s back onstage after suffering through a fractured ankle, and having doctors tell him he might never dance again.

He proved them wrong.

When he auditioned for American Stage, he told the producers “I know what it’s like to move to a small town and not be able to dance. And that’s Ren. I really think I’d be good for the role.”

The Footloose cast and crew – they’re a family now – are in full adrenaline mode.

“There’s a learning curve going from not doing a lot to learning a new number every day, and retaining information,” said DeLeo. “But we’re doing it, and it’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be great.

“I can’t wait for people to see it. I just found out my extended family from Boston is flying down. It’s a very joyous musical about freedom, and we all need that right now.”

Find more info and tickets here.