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WOS Radio: New Star Derek Hough Cuts Footloose

In our latest Whatsonstage.com Radio programme, Roger Foss goes backstage at the West End's Novello Theatre to meet Derek Hough, the 21-year-old from Utah who stars as Ren, the boy who gets everyone dancing, in Karen Bruce's production of screen-to-stage musical Footloose.

Described by Whatsonstage.com's Michael Coveney as "an elasticated blond bombshell whose limbs seem to be treble-jointed and whose control and execution of moves at high speed is a wonder of the West End stage", Hough - a World Latin American Champion – explains how he came to live in the UK and why eating a baked potato during each performance helps to keep up his phenomenal energy level.

Based on the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon, Footloose features the songs from the film, including "Holding Out for a Hero", "Almost Paradise" and "Let's Hear it for the Boy”, and centres on city kid Ren who moves with his family to a small Bible Belt town in middle America where rock music and dancing are strictly forbidden, but gets sparks flying when Ren he joins the local minister's teenage daughter in a dance rebellion. David Essex joins the cast, taking over from Stephen McGann as the Rev Shaw Moore, for three months from 5 June 2006 (See News, 12 May 2006).

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