by Chris D’Arienzo
Directed by Kristin Hanggi
A Mirvish Production
at the Royal Alexandra Theatre
Opened May 11,2010

   Like Mama Mia!, Rock of Ages is a story musical rather than a revue, and its story is actually wider than that of the ABBA mega box office triumph. It’s not high literature, of course; in fact, it’s darn low in its tone, situation, characters, and language, but it scores well in what anything in the theatre must come down or up to—theatricality. From Beowulf Borrit’s set of massive billboards, seedy nightclub, neon lights, and palm trees fringing the background that makes good uses of video projections and the 80’s costumes (by Gregory Gale), the wigs (particularly the Big Hair ones), and the lighting (by Jason Lyons) to the band, dancing (choreography by Kelly Devine) and sheer energy of the cast, this is a young person’s musical for people who would probably find Jersey Boys (a superior musical) quaint. I did not hear many of the lyrics, but I don’t know if I was supposed to. I heard the tunes and their title-phrases, and I was caught up in the rhythms of the show. The score is, as any young person knows, a pile of hits by the like of Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, and Twisted Sister. There are guitar solos and endless noise, and the strong suggestion of acid and grass is exactly what the libretto wishes to convey. The storyline is, of course, clichéd and without irony but not cloying, though the plot works its way to a sentimental finish.

   In brief, it concerns Drew, a shy kid from Michigan who does a menial job at the Bourbon Room, a legendary club on the Strip belonging to Dennis, a survivor of the Hippie Age. Drew, of course, has big dreams of becoming a rock star, but he is rocked first by Sherrie, an aspiring actress from Kansas, and then by Stacee Jaxx, a whacked-out blond singer of the mega-band Arsenal that got its start in the Bourbon Room. Jaxx shows that blonds do have more fun. He cunningly seduces good gal Sherrie and then dumps her abruptly and cruelly, though he does eventually pay a severe price for his excesses. There is also another complication in the plot and this concerns the German father and son team of Hertz and Franz who want to tear down the Strip and build something more profitable. This pair gets no sympathy from anyone in the audience, but the son, who gives every external indication of being a stereotypical gay young man (though he claims he is merely German and not gay!), gets many a cheap laugh before earning applause later for finally standing up to his overbearing dad.

   The show doesn’t need to try hard to sell itself to young audiences, but don’t tell that to the director and cast who play the preposterous and the portentous, the corny and the sincere with huge exertion. Yves Pednault, who cannot hide his French Canadian roots, sings wonderfully well, powerfully in his solos, and has natural charm as Drew. Elicia Mackenzie, in a performance that runs almost entirely counter to her very fine Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music, doesn’t seem born to play Sherrie, and she struggles at times with the rock music and the role, but she, too, has genuine stage presence. David W. Keeley plays Dennis with admirable dignity, and Peter Deiwick’s Stacee Jaxx is an excellent drug-dazed ego-and-sex maniac. As the German father and son, Victor Young plays Herz unsentimentally straight while Cody Scott Lancaster plays Franz as a risibly bent milksop until he bursts out of the fag cliché to incarnate another—that of a rebellious hero. The show is narrated by beer-bellied, tattooed Aaron Walpole of Canadian Idol fame, who plays Lonny and every bit a madcap loony at times. He leaves no pun unintended, no double entendre ambiguous, and no wisecrack uncracked. He zips around, relishing every joke in the script, sometimes ad-libbing his own, and has admirable spirit, if not quite as admirable taste. But then who really expects good taste in a blazing, blaring rock musical?

photo: Joan Marcus

pic 1: Yves Pednault (Drew) and Elicia Mackenzie (Sherrie) in "Rock of Ages"

pic 2: Peter Deiwick as Stacee Jaxx in "Rock of Ages"




Go Back to: Stage Reviews