Longford's St Mel’s Musical Society gonna get Footloose
St Mel’s Musical Society have announced what show they will make their dramatic return to stage with. The group have also flagged the back-room team to bring the show to life.
Footloose the Musical is a remake of the iconic 1984 film of the same name. After a long night of partying, an intoxicated Bobby Moore and his friends are killed when their car collides head-on with a truck on a bridge on their way home to the town of Bomont, Georgia.
This prompts his father Shaw Moore, the town reverend, to persuade the city council to pass several draconian laws and ordinances, one of which bans all unsupervised dancing within city limits.
Three years later, Boston-raised teenager Ren McCormack moves to Bomont to live with his uncle Wes Warnicker, aunt Lulu, and cousins Sarah and Amy after his mother's death from leukaemia and his father's desertion.
Upon arrival, Ren befriends fellow Bomont High senior Willard Hewitt, who explains the ban on dancing.
Since its revival in 1978 St Mel's Musical Society have staged shows like South Pacific, Me and My Girl, Annie, Billy Liar, The Addam's Family, Sister Act, 9 to 5, and All Shook Up entertaining thousands in those last 44 years.
This year sees some new faces among the core team for the show. Niamh O’Brien takes up the role of choreographer. Niamh is a student from Shroid, Longford. A member of Evolution Stage School for the past 13 years, she has performed in hundreds of shows.
Niamh has been a member of St Mel's Musical Society since 2017 and has performed in their productions of “Sister Act” (Ensemble and Tina) and “9 to 5” (Ensemble).
Niamh is also an active member of UCD Musical Society and has most recently been involved in their productions of “Once” (Orchestra - guitar) and “Urinetown” (Dance Captain /Ensemble /Hair and Makeup Manager).
In addition to musicals, Niamh can also be seen on stage performing with Longford Traditional Panto. Having performed the lead role in ‘Snow White’ in 2021, Niamh will again take on a role in the upcoming ‘Billy and the Beanstalk’ panto which takes place in December 2022.
The Director chair will be occupied by Alan Greaney. Alan is no stranger to the stage and is a well known singer and performer. He fell in love with musical theatre from a young age and has spent over 20 years treading the boards with many musical societies across Connacht.
He is also an accomplished wedding singer, a regular performer with the Black Magic Big Band, and makes up one third of the Galway Tenors. In the last number of years, Alan has turned his attention to Directing - the highlight of which (thus far!) was last year's award winning production of "Little Shop of Horrors" with 9 Arch Musical Society in Galway.
This year's Musical Director is the remarkable Vince Tully. A native of Castlerea, now living in Cavan, Vince is delighted to be asked back on to the production team for St Mel’s Musical society 2023 Production. Vince previously worked with the society on “9 to 5” and had the 2020 production “Hairspray” stage ready before Covid scuppered those plans.
A founding member of Tullyvin Musical Society in Cavan, Vince took his first leap into musical direction for their first two shows “Calamity Jane” in 2016 and “9 to 5” in 2017. Following on, Vince also worked with “Broadway Cabaret Dublin” where he both produced and directed three shows in 2018 & 2019.
Vince is excited to start work on the next production: “It’s a great show with lots of fantastic music that everyone will know. It will be a lot of fun for everyone that signs up and gets involved,” he said of Footloose.
Auditions for ‘Footloose’ take place on Sunday, November 20 from 3pm at Coffee House 45.
To sign up for auditions go to: http://footloose2023.myshow.ie/