Feature Photo By: Izzy Honey – Nate Beutel, who plays Ren McCormick, is pictured here with part of the set from Footloose. As Beutel is a senior, this is his last performance at Rangeview. 

Students, faculty, and families alike all packed into the auditorium for the much-anticipated premiere of Footloose last night. The audience was not disappointed.

The theatre was packed with people who all laughed, gasped, and applauded through the show as Ren McCormick, played by senior Nate Beutel, and Ariel Moore, played by senior Hannah Brown, fought to rid the town of its sorrows and its law against dancing.

The play opens with Ren telling his friends in Chicago that he is moving to a small town through song and dance. The tone quickly changes as we learn that he is moving because his father walked out. He then learns that the town he moved to has outlawed dancing, something that he loves doing.  

Live music was performed by Rangeview’s band, directed by the band and orchestra teacher, Trey Tafoya.

This is Tafoya’s first time working with Rangeview’s theatre program for a performance.

“It was a really thrilling experience. They worked really hard and learned really quickly,” he said. “[It was] very rewarding and the students worked very hard.”

The play, based off the 1984 movie Footloose, follows the basic outline of the story but differs greatly in several areas.

As expected, there was a lot of singing and dancing; there were a lot of added songs that were not originally in the movie.

“[The first show] went so good. I’m so proud of it,” said Brown. “I was really happy with our performance, and I’m really proud of our cast.”

This was her first performance as an actor but has musically directed the past three shows.

Even though I had seen the movie before, I was still sitting in anticipation as to what was going to happen next.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” said junior Lizzie Stacks. “It was great; the energy was phenomenal.”

All the actors did an exceptional job portraying their characters and I’m always impressed to see familiar theatre faces playing characters that extremely contrast characters from previous shows.  

A lot of hard work was put into this play and it showed. Each song was choreographed with a dance and there no noticeable mistakes present.

“We worked for four months and it’s a fun, energetic show that will let you have fun while watching it,” said Brown.

It’s definitely a show worth seeing. Rangeview always goes all out for their final show of the year and Footloose was no exception.

Stacks said, “I would definitely recommend everyone sees it.”

If you did not catch opening night, there are still two more shows tonight and Saturday at 7pm. Tickets are $6 with an activity card, $7 without, and $8 for adults. Be sure to get there early because seats fill fast.