Rock of Ages – Featuring a book by Chris D’Arienzo and arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, the tenth anniversary tour is being directed by Martha Banta and choreographed by Janet Rothermel. At the Boch Center Wang Theatre, Boston through 10/28
You don’t have to have been a child of MTV to enjoy Rock of Ages, the jukebox musical now rocking the Boch Center Wang Theatre – but it certainly helps. Featuring songs by bands that helped launch the channel back in its early days – Twisted Sister, Quarterflash, REO Speedwagon, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Journey and Pat Benatar – the show is a essentially comic sendup of every dumb rock and roll movie ever made from Beach Blanket Bingo to Rock n Roll High School, and it’s a blast.
Narrated by Lonny (John-Michael Breen), the Spicoli-esque sound man at the Bourbon Room (a stand-in for the Whiskey-a-Go-Go on Sunset Strip), Rock of Ages tells the story of the rocky road to love for Sherrie Christian (Katie LaMark), a small town girl who comes to Hollywood to become a movie star, and Drew Boley, aka Wolfgang von Colt (Anthony Nuccio), a barback whose dream is to become a rock god like Stacee Jax (Sam Harvey), lead singer of the musical’s fictional band, Arsenal. There’s also a plot about a pair of evil German developers trying to demolish the Bourbon Room and the rest of the strip to make room for a gleaming new development, but any semblance of plot is just a setup for the anthemic 80’s score.
There are a lot of songs that make you remember that Ronald Reagan wasn’t the only thing about the 80’s that sucked, but Rock of Ages is loaded with guilty pleasures (“Sister Christian”, “Can’t Fight This Feeling”), some chart-toppers (“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, “Waiting for a Girl Like You”) as well as some tunes that belong any “Best of the 80’s” list, most notably, “Don’t Stop Believin’” which had the entire audience on their feet singing to close out the show.
The strength of Rock of Ages is the powerhouse vocals by the cast, many of whom could easily front their own hair metal bands. Drew Nuccio is a sonic force, and the drop off in vocal power is barely perceptible down the line as Harvey, Ryan M. Hunt (who plays club owner Dennis, whose band once opened for the Alan Parsons Project) and Breen all hold their own with the rock anthems. The women are equally good, as LaMark and Kenya Hamilton belt out the rock numbers with authority and the ballads with heartfelt urgency. The show never takes itself too seriously, with the fourth wall demolished with regularity. Breen as Lonny gives a comic gem of a performance, as he dispenses half-baked rock philosophy, armed only with his trusty Fogmaster 5000 fog machine, and Chris Renalds is a scream as Franz, the sexually ambiguous son of the developer.
But Rock of Ages mostly lets the music do the talking (to quote Aerosmith’s Joe Perry), and it’s a rockin’ good time if you don’t think too deeply about – well anything. Based on the enthusiastic response of the audience, which seemed heavily weighted to the 40-65 crowd, it’s a headbangers dream. For tickets and info, go to: http://www.bochcenter.org/rockofages
