Perfect Pitchford
Saint Louis alum Dean Pitchford, whose credits include Footloose and Fame, returns to his alma mater this week to produce the stage version of Footloose. So kick off your Sunday shoes
By Darlene Dela Cruz
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nity. Peter’s security is the most gracious gift he gave me. He was an extraordinary show-man. He taught me how to write (songs) for characters.”
Those songwriting skills carried Pitchford to his next collaborator,
Michael Gore, with whom he wrote songs for the musical Fame, which turned out to be a turning point in Pitchford’s career. Aside from accolades and awards from the production, Fame spurred Pitchford to begin a stint in pop songwriting, working with writer Tom Snow and discovering the many facets of the art.
The segue to pop songwriting was “very hard,” says Pitchford. “I was a product of theatre - we got points for being clever. Pop music needs more universal songwriting and messages. It’s very hard to do. It’s hard to be simple and good.”
Pitchford, however, had a chance to blend his theatre wit and pop sensibility into a unique screenplay focused on a small town in Oklahoma. Sparked by a 1979 news story about the 80-year-old ban on dancing in Elmore City, Okla., and the controversy over its local high school’s efforts to start a school dance, Pitchford began to pen a script for what would become Footloose.
“I was looking to do something about music, but all my ideas were about music being done in expected places,” he says, explaining prior ideas of screenplays that led singing characters to fulfilling their dreams in recording studios and other stereotypical endings that left him dissatisfied. “I wanted to make music in a place that’s unexpected.”
He hung out in Elmore City with local teenagers and went to the town church regularly to get an authentic feel of its culture for the film. Casting then began for the lead role, a process that surprisingly saw the early professional auditions of several of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
“We tried out Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise, but the director said that neither of them felt right (for the part),” Pitchford says. “Then the casting director in New York pitched Kevin Bacon for the role. Kevin was in an off-Broadway musical called Slab Boys with Sean Penn.”
Footloose was released in 1984, becoming the No. 1 grossing film in its week of release. Its soundtrack also proved to be a chart powerhouse, with the title single by Kenny Loggins and the ubiquitous Deniece Williams song Let’s Hear it for the Boy hitting the top of Billboard‘s music hit list as well. Footloose the film celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and its Broadway musical incarnation - which has been performed from Japan to Iceland - marked its 10th anniversary in 2008.
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Pitchford’s career and creativity since his major success with Footloose has been as ironically irrepressible as the characters he created for the production. In 2007, he released The Big One-Oh, his first foray into young-adult fiction writing, a book that he worked on with his niece after she had lost her mother (Pitchford’s sister) in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“It was an attempt to connect with my niece. I wanted an excuse to keep bugging her, so I sat down with her in New York City and pitched the idea of the book,” he says. The Big One-Oh is Pitchford’s mark on a new generation, a charming story about a kid’s struggle to find a cool way to celebrate his 10th birthday.
Adding to his impact on current pop culture, Pitchford also is eager to see upcoming film remakes of Fame and Footloose (in which teen idol Zac Efron has been tapped to star).
Although he isn’t directly involved in either production, he says songs he’d originally written for both films will certainly be used in the new versions of the films.
“But the final products will be as much a surprise to me as anyone!” he says.
Yet even for a person with such a well-versed repertoire, a home-coming to Hawaii is still a joy. In the midst of all the activities surrounding Footloose and his return to his roots at Saint Louis, Pitchford says he’s sincerely making plans to partake in the local pastimes he still adores.
“I love Zippy’s saimin,” he says. “And the best thing ever is going to Kapahulu after a morning show appearance and getting from Leonard’s the first malasadas of the day.”
For Pitchford, these “little things” about Hawaii continue to stick with him, even through Fame and fortune.
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