Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is one of my favourites with being a bit of a rock chick at heart. It is staged during the golden era of hair rock in arguably its spiritual home – the 80’s on Sunset Strip, L.A.! The beauty of this production to me is that it fondly bestows an ironic, self-deprecating smile onto some of the more extreme aspects of this sub-culture without tipping over into outright mockery. And of course, it showcases some of rock’s most epic talents with its anthemic soundtrack. Wrapped around the offerings from the rock gods is the love story of Drew and Sherrie, two all American kids who came to Hollywood to chase their respective dreams and found their real dream was waiting for them at the Bourbon Room, a dive bar on the Strip. Throw in a corrupt Mayor, a cutthroat German property developer, a shady record executive and some epic music, you are on your way to having your face melted!

This production was high energy with the cast all looking like they were having a blast! The sound was not as balanced as it could have been and it was extremely difficult to follow the dialogue over the music. The plot wouldn’t probably win awards for complexity (which is half the fun) but for anyone who was unfamiliar with it, any exposition was overshadowed by the volume of the music. The musicians themselves were doing a good job and one great thing about this production is that they are on stage, almost ending up as a cast member!

The choreography was slick but the stage did feel crowded at times when the whole ensemble was on. Whilst a remarkable job had been done with the moves given the volume of people in the space, it just felt too busy and some of the more prominent moves and lines in these segments got a bit lost.

The set had nailed the slightly seedy, run-down atmosphere of the Bourbon Room and did a good job of multi-tasking into the other venues it needed to be such as the Venus Club. The upper left corner was also used as a different venue. I went on the first night and there did appear to be a lighting gremlin as when Stacee Jaxx is first introduced via his phone call with Dennis, he was in that corner but it was completely dark. First night tech is sent to try us in the amateur world so hopefully he was able to be seen for the rest of the run.

Costume was excellent, showcasing both the era and sub-culture perfectly and it was great to see some extremely big hair as quite honestly, the hair cannot be too big!

There is often some doubling up in a Rock of Ages cast, Sherrie’s parents for example but in this production, this wasn’t done to allow one or two people to cut their teeth on a small part. As an overall observation for the cast, accents were good throughout.

Our young lovebirds, Drew and Sherrie (Dan Surj and Alex Lewis) portrayed their wide-eyed dreamer characters perfectly. Alex had a competent vocal and perfectly gave Sherrie that “innocent girl in the big city” vibe that is so crucial for the character given the arc. Dan was last seen in Evita and I thought he did a great job. Maybe looking a smidge more comfortable in the more typical West End vocals than in some of the very stratospheric reaches that rock can demand but a great performance of the wannabe rock god turned boy band sellout. Well done to you both!

And the man himself, Stacee Jaxx played by Will Wood. Leaving the baby llama entirely out of it (wink, wink!), Will had absolutely captured Stacee’s arrogance and swagger and showed it in every strut! There didn’t seem to be complete comfort with the vocal demand of the part but we were in no doubt that there was a rock god stood among us – in Stacee’s mind at least! Stacee may well not plan another visit to the Venus Club given his experience there but it’s there we found a killer vocal in the form of Helen-Sian Tisdale playing Justice Charlier. Fantastic performance and could even be heard soaring over the collective ensemble in parts!

Our invading property developers Helga & Franz Klinneman (Carole Langford & David Elliot-Hancock) give us our villains but whilst Helga is hellbent on destroying the Strip in favour of a new mall, Franz really just wants to open a confectionary store. Good vocal performances from both and David really tapped into the comic potential of Franz giving the audience a good giggle. I have often wondered if the line “I’m not gay, I’m German” is delivered any differently when the show tours Berlin?

Leading the charge against the marauding Germans is Regina (Laura Marsden) who in defending the Strip, catches Franz’s eye. It was a great performance from Laura as the feisty campaigner who found love as well as victory!

Our world-weary owner of the Bourbon Room, Dennis Dupree (Jono Down) is the lynchpin character of the story; employing Drew and Sherrie, fighting to save the Bourbon from the developers, blackmailing…..er, I mean inviting Stacee to play a farewell concert – the action centres around him and the bar. Jono’s portrayal of Dennis was excellent both vocally and from a character perspective. The duet over the Fogmaster 5000 with Lonny was excellent and hilarious!

And of course, Lonny (Tim Cooper) – if Dennis is the story arc lynchpin, then Lonny, as the narrator, holds everything else together. Lonny needs to have the vocal, the manic energy, the humour, the pathos and luckily for us, Tim had the whole package and delivered a great performance.

We also saw smaller but still vital roles played by Holly Garratley, Roxy Warrilow, Laura Riddell, Dave Parton, Rachel Parton, Jon Wilson, Emily-Jayne Nicholls, Matt Giles & Lee Woodburn as the waitresses, Sherrie’s parents, the Mayor, Joey Primo, the journalist, DJ and Ja’Keith and everybody ably & amply supported by the ensemble cast.

Rock of Ages is definitely one of the shows that is purely and simply about having fun and there was plenty of fun in evidence, both on stage and in the audience and I am sure this energy continued throughout the run. Thank you so much for your kind invitation and I look forward to Sister Act in the spring. Lots of luck with rehearsals!

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