Rock of Ages

Warmly welcomed, as always, by Sally Hughes and her front of house team, I was given my ticket, bought the obligatory raffle tickets (no luck again) and took my seat in the auditorium, looking forward to a good night's entertainment. As with most Spot On productions I was not to be let down.

The stage was open and depicted the Sunset Strip, with the on-stage band in the middle to the rear. The lights dimmed, the smoke effect billowed and away we went. The lighting and sound would need to be first class, and it was, the lighting, well programmed by Alex Edward, really added to the overall feel of the show throughout and sound by Mark Bourne, given how loud this was, was well run. 

The first thing that struck me was the band. A five piece of high standard musicians led by Jim Smith and Liam Baker on guitar with Jo Pawlowska on keyboards providing the excellent sound and Chris Dale (bass) and Steve Barker (Drums) providing excellent drive and back beat. What a wall of sound they produced. Big American rock anthems filled the theatre, "We Built this City", "Wanted Dead or Alive", "The Final Countdown", "Every Rose has its Thorn" to name but a few. Fantastic.

The cast flooded the stage and were confident and full of energy. This is a show that requires just that, and they had it in abundance. It is quite obvious that they had been well rehearsed by the creative team of Alick Leech and Holly Ind. The choreography that accompanied was very wel thought out and put together, challenging in places but great to watch well done to Jemma Conner. The cast were here to enjoy themselves and that they did. It came over so well into the auditorium, full of energy and life. The music direction was by Martin Bennetts, with this much energy and noise had his work cut out, but, he worked them well. The diction was great, spoken and sung, you could follow the story well, there appeared to be no dropped lines, and again the cast energy flooded the auditorium.

The principal line up of George Boley as Drew and Niamh Harman as Sherrie as the main protagonists played their lead rolls with real believability and let the story revolve around them well. They were very well backed up by Howard Corbett as Stacee Jaxx, Josh McDonald as Dennis Dupree and Susie Maycock (and her brilliant vocals) as Justice Charlier. However it is here that I have to pick up the performance of Adam Rush as Lonny Barnett. Manic, great comic timing, huge energy and your eyes were drawn to him (not to detract from the rest of the cast) he narrated the show and told the story.

The costumes were, as to be expected from this rock show, full of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake tee shirts, ripped jeans and underwear everywhere. Brilliant. It looked like the costume team led by Mandy Harrison had had great fun putting this together. The Flower Power dresses and shirts particularly stood out as they were colourful with associated tie died patterns etc.

This show was a visual feast for the eyes and an auditory excellence for the ears. A show brilliantly directed and superbly performed. Well done Spot On, another triumph.

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