School of Rock - The Musical

45 members of Giz Giz Youth Theatre filled the stage – in fact the whole theatre – with their high energy performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music and energetic dance routines. They were led in their endeavours by Matthew Tosh’s outstanding portrayal of the irrepressible Dewy Finn – struggling rock star turned supply teacher. His singing in numbers such as “Children of Rock”, “Stick it to the Man” and the titular “School of Rock” was electrifying and his enthusiasm for the role shone through in his acting – even I was won over to rock! Lucy Parfitt was excellent as the uptight school principal – and repressed rock chick – Rosalie Mullins. Her soaring voice was shown to its best in her solo numbers “Queen of the Night” and “Where Did the Rock Go?” and she brought across the two sides of the character extremely well in her acting. Max Gray as lead guitarist Zack and Abbie Morgan as bassist Katie, playing their instruments live on stage were amazing as were Sophie McDonald as drummer Freddie and Sophie Wang Dzialoszynski as keyboardist Lawrence. Mollie -Rose Downie as the reticent Tomika really shone through with her rendition of “Amazing Grace”. Libby Adam played the no nonsense student Summer who becomes the band’s powerful manager as to the manner born. Matthew Smith as Dewy’s hen-pecked friend Ned and Charlie Fisher as his domineering girlfriend Patty gave very good portrayals of the characters. Strong support was given by Zoe Blair and Kayla Nicol (backing singers Shonelle and Marcy), Katelyn Webster (Billy the band’s stylist) and Sean Findley (Mason the Techie). One of the many highlights for me was the more insightful “If Only You Would Listen” when the students tell of their struggle to make their parents understand them – something everyone in the audience could relate too. The set was colourful and simple allowing for seamless scene changes and costuming was appropriate to the era and characters. The 7 piece band handled the various styles of music well and were particularly enthusiastic in the rock numbers as would be expected. The audience reaction to the finale and to the bows was ecstatic and the elation on the faces of the cast was a joy to behold. Well done everyone at Giz Giz on a brilliant show.

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