Latest news with #Footloose
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Freak Accident Burned 50% of High School Senior's Body. It Didn't Stop Him from Starring in 'Footloose' (Exclusive)
Rising Virginia high school senior James Culatta was on a summer hike when the ground gave way beneath him and he fell into a near-boiling hot spring He was horribly injured and spent months in the hospital but eventually recovered enough to star in his school's spring musical "I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid," his mom saysLast June, James Culatta was hiking with his family in Orem, Utah, during a college visit when he stepped on a rock and the ground opened up beneath him — sending him tumbling into a underground hot spring of scalding water and mud. 'I was terrified,' the 18-year-old from Herndon, Va., says now. 'I had never experienced that much pain in my life. I didn't know you could feel that much pain.' The spring that James fell into was more than 200 degrees, close to the boiling point. He tried to swim out but the ground was too unstable. Eventually, though horribly injured — the skin had melted off of both of his hands and he had suffered burns on about half his body — he pulled himself to safety. 'There was blood everywhere,' he says. James drank two gallons of water while he waited for a LifeFlight helicopter to take him to the University of Utah Health's Burn Center in Salt Lake City. What had started out as a summer trip for a family reunion, with a detour to see a prospective college, was suddenly something much more dire. 'We thought there was a good chance he was never going to walk again,' says James' dad, Richard Culatta, 46. The recovery, James says, was 'more painful' than his accident. Doctors had to remove the burned skin from the bottom half of his body, then they had to strip the skin that had not been burned — from his belly button to his neck — and stretch it to make grafts for to help replace what had been lost. (He looked, his dad says, like a mummy in a museum.) '[It] was so stressful and so painful, and I really couldn't have done it without my family. They've helped me so much,' says James, the second oldest of four children. 'They were by my side the whole time.' The teen spent two months in the hospital in Salt Lake. He was still an inpatient when his school, Herndon High, announced they were staging a musical production of Footloose for the spring. The news caught his family's attention. James says he's always felt a connection to the original movie, and he loves singing and dancing. He was in his school's production of Fiddler on the Roof last year. 'We looked at each other and said, 'Oh my gosh,' wouldn't that be amazing [for him to be in it],' recalls James' mom, Shaundra Culatta, a 42-year-old professional violinist. 'But,' she says, 'it felt so far out of reach. He couldn't even stand at that point — it felt like an impossible goal.' And then, with time, it wasn't so impossible after all. Earlier this month, after six months of grueling rehab and seven surgeries, he starred as Ren McCormick, the character Kevin Bacon originated in the 1984 movie. 'To see him dancing up on stage is just amazing,' says Richard, who runs the nonprofit Innovative Learning. 'I was like, 'Are you able to do this?' You should see his knees. If I showed you a picture of what his knees look like, they look like they've been through a garbage disposal. It's just totally shredded,' Richard says of James. 'He's like, "No, we made it work.' ' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The teen had to miss the first semester of his senior year because he was in the hospital and, when he returned home, he needed four hours of physical therapy at a MedStar in Washington, D.C., with a commute that took about 90 minutes each way. The possibility of Footloose hung out in the future. Friends encouraged him to audition for Ren and while he says he 'never really thought I would actually get the role … I'm so glad that I did, because I made so many friends and I strengthened relationships.' 'It gives me hope going forward,' he says. His parents say they are very grateful that the director took a risk in casting James — at the time he auditioned, he was walking 'like a penguin,' Richard says. 'His overall health was in the balance from the very beginning, he was still sick all the time,' Shaundra says. 'I felt so grateful for these people that believed in my kid.' The choreography and costuming were adjusted for James. For example, in a gym class scene, he wore long pants (with medical-grade compression garments underneath) when the rest of the actors rocked shorts. Nonetheless, he danced, shuffled and slid on his knees as the part required. 'It was an incredible miracle,' Shaunda says. 'It's just such a testament of the power of family and community and prayer and faith. It was truly horrific what he went through. But it is kind of this wonderful comeback story because this musical is all about dancing." James has a 'really, really long road' ahead, according to his mom. He has several more surgeries planned to improve his mobility. 'But he's a really, really tough kid." His care team sat with his parents in the second row for his final performance on May 4. 'There were lots of tears,' Richard says. This summer, James plans to return to Utah and be a counselor at a summer camp for kids who are burn survivors, alongside the doctors and medical team he got to know from the University of Utah Health. 'They've become my family,' he says. 'I love them so much.' And in the fall, having now caught up on the schoolwork he missed, he plans to attend Utah Valley University, where he had been planning to visit before his injuries. He's considering becoming a physical therapist and working with other burn victims. 'You can do anything if you believe in yourself,' he says. 'And with the power of friendship and family, anything's really possible.' Read the original article on People
West Australian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Drew Anthony Creative presents Footloose at Planet Royale with Humphrey Bower as Reverend Shaw
Perth acting stalwart Humphrey Bower is proving it is never too late to try something new. After years of treading the boards across Australian stages, including homegrown productions Mary Stuart and a cavalcade of Black Swan State Theatre Company works, the 61-year-old actor signed up for his first musical, starring as Reverend Shaw in Drew Anthony Creative's latest season, Footloose. Bower, who is also a sessional teacher at WA Academy of Performing Arts, admits he never anticipated adding musical theatre to his acting credits, but was approached by Drew Anthony after the director/producer saw him in Black Swan Theatre's 2023 play Things I Know To Be True. It was a performance Bower would go on to be honoured with a Performing Arts WA Award for Outstanding Performer in a Leading Role. 'He approached me then and asked if I was interested in being in a production that he was planning to do,' South Fremantle-based Bower recounts. 'I was intrigued by the possibility of being in a musical, so it was a 'yes' in principle. Then that production got postponed but it stayed in the back of my mind, and maybe in his (Drew's) mind too. 'When Drew announced his shows for this year, I was on his email list, and one of the productions was Footloose. I thought that I could make a fair fist of being the Reverend. It was an interesting character for an actor, and I felt like I could handle the songs, and I thought there probably wouldn't be too much dancing.' Based on the 1980s movie-musical starring Kevin Bacon, Footloose is set in a small rural town where dancing and other forms of fun have been banned in the wake of a car crash, which killed five teenagers under the influence of alcohol and drugs after a night of dancing. Bower refers to it as the classic fish-out-of-water scenario, where three years later, dance-loving main character Ren McCormack — played in this production by Ethan Churchill — arrives in town with his mum following his parents' separation and falls in love with Reverend Shaw's rebel daughter Ariel (Sienna Mackay). 'I like to think of Reverend Shaw as not being the villain but being the antagonist in the story because he's really the leader of the town elders and the town council,' Bower explains. 'His own son was killed in this car crash, so he has a personal stake in this law which Ren wants to change. The minister's story really is the story of a man who has not dealt with his grief. I mean, the whole town hasn't really dealt with the grief properly. 'They've just tried to stop something like this from ever happening again and it's a battle of wills between him and Ren as to whether or not the town is going to change and accept what's happened and move on.' The musical not only examines grief but is also a timely look at conservatism and generational clashes. 'The original movie was set in the 80s, so it was in Reagan's America, which was a time of conservative reaction and culture wars,' Bower says. 'Drew has set this production now and I think we are living through a time again, especially in America, but globally of culture wars, polarisation and the clash between progressive and conservative values between the younger and older generations. 'Even about evangelical Christianity. I don't think the musical is necessarily critical of evangelical Christianity per se, but I think it is looking at how that gets emotionally charged and mobilised.' Celebrating the power of rebellion, friendship and finding your voice, the rollicking rock'n'roll musical features iconic songs including Holding Out For A Hero, Let's Hear It For The Boy and title number, Footloose. While Bower can not remember ever having sung on stage before, let alone being in a full-blown musical, he admits it is the small amount of dancing required of him in the closing mega mix that has given him the most anxiety. 'Thankfully I'm pretty well in the back row of a big cast at the end for the closing number,' he says. 'The whole form of the musical is not one that I'm used to, so it's a challenge, but a really enjoyable one. It's a good test, switching between singing and speaking. I'm using my brain in a different way. 'And the role has its challenges . . . he's basically a decent guy, but, like all of us, he's fallible and he has to learn his lesson. We're living in an era when seeing an older, white, straight man learn his lesson, and admit that he doesn't know all the answers, is a good thing to witness.' Footloose is at Planet Royale, Northbridge until June 8. Tickets at
USA Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Strands hints today: Clues and answers on Wednesday, May 14 2025
Strands hints today: Clues and answers on Wednesday, May 14 2025 WARNING: THERE ARE STRANDS SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE MAY 14, 2025 STRANDS ANSWER SPOILED FOR YOU. Ready? OK! Have you been playing Strands, the super fun game from the New York Times, the makers of Connections and other brain-teasers like Wordle in which you have to do a search in a jumble of letters and find words based on a theme? It's pretty fun and sometimes very challenging, so we're here to help you out with some clues and the answers, including the "Spangram" that connects all the words. Let's start with the clue: Boogie woogie woogie. If you want our help? Think about where those lyrics are from! As for the answers, scroll below the photo below: Footloose, Locomotion, Hustle, Wobble, Macarena The Spangram is ... LINE DANCE. Play more word games Looking for more word games?
Calgary Herald
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Review: Cast and crew cut loose with Stage West's high-energy version of Footloose
Article content The movie Footloose may be 40 years old, but its characters and themes are as relevant and relatable as they were four decades ago. Stage West has given a stage version of Footloose a high-energy production highlighting the story's strengths and appeal. Article content Ren McCormack, a Chicago teenager who works in a dance club, is forced to move to the small town of Bomont when his father abandons them. He discovers that the town has banned dancing and clubs because of an accident that claimed the lives of four teenagers five years earlier. Ren's adversary is Reverend Shaw Moore, who rules the town from his pulpit, and it quickly becomes Ren's goal to bring dancing back to Bomont. Article content Article content The film version of Footloose received two Oscar nominations in 1985 for best song including the title song, and Let's Hear it for the Boy, both of which are in the stage musical as well as Almost Paradise, Holding Out for a Hero, I'm Free, Heaven Help Me and The Girl Gets Around. The stage musical also includes songs like Learning to be Silent, Mama Says, Dancing is not a Crime, and Can You Find it in Your Heart, which couldn't be more different from the pop songs from the film, but they do help advance the plot and explain what the characters are feeling. Article content Article content Ariel, the Reverend's daughter, makes a play for Ren because she thinks it will anger her father, but eventually she sees that they have a great deal in common, and that there is genuine attraction, as they reveal in their big duet Almost Paradise. Article content As Ren, Sam Boucher proves to be the triple-threat this role demands. He wisely shows Ren's insecurities as well as his bravura so as not to alienate the audience, and can give each of his songs the gusto they demand and boy, can the man move. It's as if there isn't a bone in his body. Article content Paige Foskett shows a real duality that makes her Ariel so alluring. She is a completely different person at home than she is in public. She desperately wants to revive the relationship she once had with her father, but he only sees her rebellious side and holds it against her. Article content Footloose is definitely a child of the '80s, so there is a vein of misogyny that pervades the story: Ren's mother is abandoned by her husband, the Reverend's wife makes it clear she knows her place, and Ariel accepts the abuse her boyfriend Chuck Cranston doles out. They even have the song Learning to be Silent to highlight their plights. Article content The supporting cast in Footloose is excellent. Ben Skipper and Tayo Gbalajobi as Ren and Ariel's odd-couple friends, Willard and Rusty, are pure dynamite. The audience cheers when Skipper's Willard finally learns to dance, showing they've bought into the character and not the actor. Alex Fellowes Smith doesn't make Cranston a dolt. He's genuinely scary, and that's not easy to achieve in a musical.
Metro
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Kevin Bacon performs song from his classic 80s film weeks after 'banning' it
Kevin Bacon recently declared he would not be getting 'footloose' any time soon, only to belt the classic 80s song a month later. The American actor banned the lead track to the 1984 film after being asked to dance 'like a monkey' too many times. Footloose saw him play Ren McCormack – a Chicago teenager who tries to overturn a ban on dancing in a small Utah town. Kenny Loggins sang the track, which became an international hit, while the music video featured Kevin, 66, and his dance moves. He previously revealed that it is his 'nightmare' that Footloose might begin to play while he's unsuspectingly enjoying his life. Despite his protesting, Kevin not only played the song but sang it himself while at Stagecoach Festival in California over the weekend. The Bacon Band performed Footloose with Kevin on vocals and tambourine and his brother Michael on guitar. Fans were shocked to hear the track sung so soon after the Tremors actor begged for a break from it. While at SXSW Festival in March, Kevin told the crowd: 'My worst nightmare is to be at a wedding and the DJ puts on Footloose. They always start out being about the bride, and then there's alcohol involved. 'And by about 10:30, the song comes on, and suddenly the wedding becomes about me getting out and dancing. People will literally form a circle around me and clap their hands like I'm a trained monkey.' He's even gone to the extent of approaching DJs early at events like weddings and parties to try to politely stop the tune from rearing its head. He confessed that he has 'no one to blame' but himself, as he 'wanted' the fame and global recognition. Footloose was a major success, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 1984, and while it wasn't his first role, it became Kevin's best known. 'It was definitely my dream to have all those things,' he told the audience at SXSW. 'But until you really have that, you don't really realise there's something kind of strange about it – it was just so the opposite of how I wanted to view myself.' His feelings aren't from a dislike of the film or the song, which he said he loves and is '100% proud of. After 40 years of being asked to dance on command, we can imagine it gets old. More Trending This isn't the first time the actor has expressed frustration at the Footloose expectations, as he confessed to Metro last year he 'doesn't know' what the dance actually is. Kevin remarked he has become slightly irritated by people asking him to perform it – a precursor to his banning He said: 'When people say, 'Do the Footloose dance,' I don't know what the Footloose dance is. I was on a red carpet recently – a couple of people [asked me] 'Will you do the Footloose dance?' And I'm like, 'No!' 'I'll do that when I choose to do it.' Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Devastating news for 80s and 90s kids — this childhood staple is going extinct MORE: Frasier star reveals humble reason why he turned down reappearing on the show 'several times' MORE: Shoppers go wild as retro favourite sweet from 80s returns to supermarkets
