Saint Louis grad brings dance party to local stage

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kamehameha students Nicole Passas, center, and Camille Carter, right; and Roosevelt student Chrissy Naruo are among seven female cast members of "Footloose," which begins an eight-show run Thursday at Saint Louis School. The play is based on the 1984 movie of the same name that starred Kevin Bacon. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser 'Footloose' Opens 7:30 p.m. Thursday $100 for opening-night benefit performance (with pre-show reception at 6 p.m.) Subsequent shows: 7:30 p.m. March 15, 21, 22, 23; 2 p.m. March 16, 17, 24; $15 ($10 students) Mamiya Theatre, Saint Louis School 739-4896

By the late 1980s, Pitchford had already nixed both a sequel to the film, which had grossed $80 million, and "a television series set every week in a small town where you couldn't dance." And he hardly expected Broadway's critical sophisticates to be kind to a pop musical based on a successful teen movie from MTV's halcyon days.

"I knew Broadway's attitude about pop music," said Pitchford, from his Los Angeles home. "And not only were we pop, but we were a phenomenon. And being a big hit made us a big target."

And so it would take years of sweet-talking from a klatch of Broadway's top producers hailing "Footloose" as a "can't miss" property with a "built-in audience" to convince a skeptical Pitchford that the Great White Way needed a musical version of his movie.

"I was surrounded by people who knew better than I ... people who were on the scene ... who spend 365 days a year" on Broadway, Pitchford said. "And I was sufficiently emboldened by what they had to say."

Pitchford finally gave in to a Broadway lull that had yet to produce new-blood blockbusters like "The Lion King" and "The Producers," and in which veteran shows like "Miss Saigon" and "Phantom of the Opera" were growing long in the tooth.

"In that environment, doing this made a lot of sense," Pitchford said.

Pitchford, a 1968 Saint Louis alumnus, attended Yale University and had slowly made a name for himself as an actor and songwriter in New York. Partnering with music writer Michael Gore, Pitchford wrote the lyrics for "Fame," the title song from the 1980 film about teenagers at New York City's High School of the Performing Arts. "Fame" won both writers Academy Awards for best song from a motion picture.

"Footloose" was Pitchford's next project. It was based on the true story of a bunch of Oklahoma high school kids who fought to overturn a century-old law that banned dancing in their small town.

Pitchford said he wrote the first draft of the screenplay in four months, "and then rewrote it 22 times after that." The property was turned down by almost every studio in Hollywood before Paramount financed it for a mere $8 million.

Buoyed by Paramount's decision to attract the movie's target teenage audience with heavily rotated videos of the film's catchy tunes — most co-written by Pitchford — on a then-emerging cable juggernaut called MTV, the movie was a smash. The "Footloose" soundtrack sold more than 8 million copies, launched six singles (including two No. 1 tracks) onto the Billboard pop charts, and knocked Michael Jackson's "Thriller" from a long run atop the Billboard album chart. "Let's Hear It For The Boy," which Pitchford co-wrote, was nominated for an Academy Award for best song from a motion picture.

In the early 1990s, a group of Broadway producers got their hands on a musical take of "Footloose" that Pitchford had written specifically for regional theater. Meetings ensued, workshops were held, and soon enough, Pitchford wrote another eight songs for "Footloose: The Musical," by then on the fast track to a large-scale Broadway debut.

"Footloose: The Musical" premiered on Oct. 22, 1998, to mostly indifferent reviews but to a strong following of patrons familiar with the movie. Attendance declined steadily over the production's nearly two-year Broadway run, but "Footloose" managed four 1999 Tony nominations, including best book of a musical, best original score and best choreography. The musical closed on July 2, 2000.

"My reaction to its reception was predictable ... exactly what I thought," said Pitchford of the critical responses. "There were reviews that were very enthusiastic and got what we were trying to do. There were reviews that decided that what they needed to do was protect Broadway from rock 'n' roll music." Pitchford nonetheless called the musical a success, pointing toward a two-year run that transcended critical barbs.

Since closing on Broadway, "Footloose: The Musical" has enjoyed a healthy second life in regional and high-school theater productions such as this month's eight-show run at Mamiya Theatre.

Pitchford recently completed compositions for another musical take on "Footloose" — this one with all of the tunes familiar from the movie, but none of the compositions from the Broadway musical — set to begin filming this year for ABC's "Wonderful World of Disney."

Thursday night's performance — a benefit for the Saint Louis arts program — will be dedicated to Pitchford's youngest sister, Patricia Pitchford Colodner, who was killed in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack.

She had been "totally my partner in all of this," Pitchford said.

"During test readings (for the musical version), she ran this thing like a finely oiled machine," he recalled, chuckling. "She called people at home, she changed schedules, she typed all the changes up. She just threw herself into this as if we were coming to Broadway."

Pitchford will be in the audience Thursday night, eager to see teenagers from his home town perform his work. He was instrumental in securing performance rights to the musical for his alma mater.

"I will find it very, very appropriate that she (Patricia) be celebrated in song and dance," he said. "It's not about mourning and not about sadness. It's about finding life. And that she is the reason for this brings the greatest joy to me."