Experience the classical coming-of-age story of Footloose the Musical
By Abbas Hussain, March 21 2025—
42nd Street Productions, a non-profit organization in Calgary, recently presented the classical musical called Footloose. Hailey Surtees, the president of 42nd Street Productions talked about all the behind-the-scenes work that it took to get this musical organized in an interview with the Gauntlet,.
This classical musical is about a city boy who moves to the small quaint little town of Bomont, where the practice of dancing is completely banned. Outraged at the idea that dance is banned, Ren starts a revolution to bring freedom to dancing so the town can dance once again.
Surtees talked about her role in organizing this show. She explained that she handles the business side, which means all the marketing, ticketing and all other administrative work along with just five volunteers, while the artistic director, Scott Drewitz, does work which includes doing all of the props, all the directing as well as handling the band and all thirty cast members.
“We’re such a young organization just kind of restarting post-COVID in 2022, so it’s really free for me to be able to explore. My favourite thing about it is that it was really small, so we can explore. It’s a real trial and error,” Surtees said.
Surtees also described the impact of COVID-19 on 42nd Street Production. The organization started in 2019, with just one show before COVID-19 came and shut everything down. In 2022, facing the threat of dissolution, Surtees stepped in and was able to restart it.
“We did a full restart, new mission, new vision, new path, new goals, new values, new everything. The first year was really tough […] this year […] we got a little bit more sail on our wings, we’ve had some critics come and review our work which has been amazing,” Surtees said.
One of the things that stand out with this musical is that there is a live band, with a five-piece band on stage with two keyboards, a basic guitar and a drum on stage.
“That’s a really cool experience because artists don’t get to work with that anymore, I feel like live music with performances is something that really died in COVID” Surtees said.
Future improvements to shows created by 42nd Street Productions is to work with pre-professional band players like with pre-professional actors to create more of a music community. The production’s aim is to bridge the gap between community theatre and professional theatre.
One phrase that Surtees says that perfectly sums out 42nd Street Productions is that they are a small organization with big dreams. More about the organization and the musical can be found on their website.