Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Members of the cast of "Footloose", This year's Spring Musical, bring the house down at their finale. The upbeat play which featured 18 different songs ran before packed houses last Thursday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon. Northfield's Middle and High School's annual Spring musical opened at the Mary Grani Corrigan Auditorium last Thursday night to a packed house.

From the moment the overture started to the last curtain call of the night the nearly 60 members of the cast and crew of "Footloose" held the rapt attention of almost 500 theatergoers.

When it was over, the cast and crew found out that standing ovations aren't just for Broadway.

The huge crowd was on their feet for nearly three minutes as curtain calls were made, the crowd roaring it's approval and expressing thanks for a job well done.

And well done it was!

"Footloose" is a play about teenagers in a small, remote, and lethargic southwestern town called Bomont.

When Ren (Jeffery Parry) moves in from Chicago he runs up against the town ordinance against dancing that all the other high school kids have accepted as fact.

The play deals with Ren's relationship with Ariel, the preacher's daughter played by Molly Clark and her father, Reverend Moore (Sean Fricke), who is the mainstay of the anti dancing movement in town.

The interactions of these three characters and Ren's determination to have a dance make up the core of the play's storyline. However, there is a lot more going on than that.

There are 32 other named characters and nearly 50 "extras" that appeared as parts of the many singing crowds throughout the play.

Comic relief is provided by Willard (Zach Ward), a gentle giant of a boy, throughout the play but especially in the second act when he tries to learn how to dance. The acting was terrific but "Footloose" is all about the singing and the dancing. There were 18 musical numbers that were all well choreographed and performed to perfection by all hands, stars and extras alike.

The show opened with the entire cast filling up the stage as they sang and performed to "Footloose" and that rocking number set the tone for the entire evening.

For the next two hours, it seemed to be non-stop singing and dancing.

Many of the songs flowed in right from the player's spoken lines, giving the scenes a seamless appearance.

The play plan also called for the actors

finishing a scene to move the props after the lights went down and that seemed to work very effectively making for smooth transitions from scene to scene.

The stage crew, lighting and sound crews deserve high praise, as does the orchestra.

The musicians, T.J. Powers & Zach Budgor (electric guitar), Mike Stridesburg (Bass Guitar), Joanna Summer (clarinet, flute, sax), Tim Johnson (drums), Alison Cerutti (keybord) and director of music, Lorraine Monmaney were as busy as the actors.

From the opening note to the curtain calls, it seemed as if the music never stopped. And they played the music extremely well.

Director Mary Corrigan was very pleased with her charges performances.

"They lived up to my expectations. They showed a lot of energy and more importantly they looked happy out there, And they stayed focused.

They looked like they were having a good time," Mrs. Corrigan said.

Usually opening night is when parents, grandparents and family members attend and there were lots of those there. But there were lots of others who either had a slight connection to the kids or just wanted to see the entertainment. Bill and Winona Pembroke, of School Street, were on hand just to watch. " We don't have kids in school anymore but we come every year. I just can't get over the job they do," he said.

Winona said she was impressed. " What a job, it was terrific. So many talented kids," she said.

Mrytle Davidson, of Fiske Avenue, said she really enjoyed the performance. "It was fabulous. What a lot of talent. Everybody did so well," she said.

Wendy Andrews, a school bus driver that had driven a lot of the kids on various trips was very enthused as she was leaving the auditorium. "It's the best show I've seen in a long time. I'm glad I didn't miss it. It was well worth the five dollars. They could have charged fifteen and I would have paid it," she said.