GTA can't get enough of Footloose
November 23, 2009
Trish Crawford
LIVING REPORTER
There's more than one Footloose in town.
While the Star has been following the production at Toronto's Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, another show has been underway in Peel.
Cawthra Park Secondary School, home to the Regional Arts Program involving more than 1,000 students, is also performing the popular musical this week in an mind-boggling case of synchronicity.
And the Footloose movie, which starred Kevin Bacon in 1984, is being remade with Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford.
Cawthra Park choreographer Fanny Ghorayeb points out that although the students weren't born in the '80s, "they are very connected to the music of that era."
One example is the continued popularity of Michael Jackson's groundbreaking Thriller video, from 1982.
Staff at Cawthra Park raided Value Village and Goodwill stores for '80s clothing and Ghorayeb donated her husband's old jeans. "Footloose needs them," she says.
The serious drama students in her school are usually drawn to works by Stephen Sondheim "with great book and songs." However, given the revival on the big screen, Ghorayeb says, they felt it was time to do something "upbeat."
The musical is actually about teenagers, something most drama students don't often get to play, and it has a large cast – Cawthra has 47 actors in its production and Cardinal Carter has 80.
Says Ghorayeb, "In a school like ours, there are so many great kids, we try to share the wealth."
Toronto Star