Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical set in 1987 Los Angeles about two small-town kids, Sherrie and Drew, who fall in love while chasing their dreams of rock stardom on the Sunset Strip. Their relationship is tested by a misunderstanding involving the legendary but arrogant rock star Stacee Jaxx, while their favourite music venue, The Bourbon Room faces demolition due to plans for a "clean living" development. The story is a celebration of classic 80s rock music from bands like Journey, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard, as the group of friends must fight to save the club and their musical community.  

In the semi narrator role Lonny played with great strength by Scott Denton, sets the bar high with the company’s opening number, full volume and full energy. The main set was the bar scene with a raised level at the rear of the stage, which provided plenty of space for the high energy and effective choreography by Emily Hamer. throughout the production.  The Bourbon Room is owned by Dennis Dupree played by Rob Pinner, laid back, or maybe ‘spaced out’ with bags of humour, an excellent performance. The two romantics, Drew and Sherrie are also well matched by Gareth Coffin and Georgie Hand. Both had strong voices and Coffin’s clarity of speech and voice was particularly good against the sound volume.

The scene with Hertz Klinneman (Rich Walker) his son Franz (Ben Williams) the Mayor (Lauren Shoring) and Regina (Jade Foster) were well played when the Mayor was persuaded by a Klinneman’s case full of money to allow the development of the Strip which would mean the demise of the Bourbon Room.  Regina’s number with the ensemble ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ was full on energy. Drew eventually regretted telling Sherrie that they were just friends, particularly after the arrival of rockstar Stacee Jaxx engaged to save the venue, played superbly by Josh Dibble. He had all the girls swooning including Sherrie! Another notable performance was provided by Hayley Jordan as Justice Charlier, owner of an adjacent Strip club, both in voice and acting.

As the Strip is being broken up, ‘The Final Countdown’ opening Act 2 was a great number as was ‘High Enough’ sung by Sherrie and Drew. I enjoyed Regina and Franz’s scene together and a great moment when he brought himself to say “Nein” to Hertz, his dad. ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ between Dennis and Lonny was very funny and ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ was also a good number. Good support too from Beth Bonner as Ja’Keith.

Much of the action was ‘close to the knuckle’ as it would have been and the humour often ‘sent up’ cleverly under the impressive direction of Alex Thompson and musical direction by Russell Painter, who certainly made the score and audience rock!

Bruce Wyatt – Regional Representative

As Regional Councillor for the West Midlands I was pleased to attend Rock of Ages albeit on a different evening to Bruce. The performance I saw was full of energy and agree with the comments made above. The performance of Scott Denton was superb along with other cast members. The character of Lonny needs to have a rapport with some audience members, and this was done at ease and confidence.  The energy from the cast was unquestionably high.

Thank you to Carpet Traders Musical Theatre Company for your kind invitation and I look forward to seeing you all again in the future.

Andy Brown – Regional Councillor NODA West Midlands.

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