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MILWAUKEE
- We probably all like the music that brings us back to our youth
when someone else was supporting us and tunes dominated our lives.
“Rock
of Ages” is making a big noise on the stage at the Marcus Center
for the Performing Arts and a formula for nostalgia for the 1980s
crowd. The plot is thin and pretty predictable, the costumes are a
clash of psychedelic colors, the amps are on high and musicians
flip their hair a lot.
It’s
about dreams, it’s about freedom, it’s about ambition, it’s
about heartbreak, but all ends well, at least for most of the
characters. Sherri
comes to Hollywood from Tulsa, Okla., with high hopes and a heavy
dose of naivete. She meets Drew, a janitor with heady dreams of
becoming a rock star. A realtor buys the Bourbon Club where he
works and wants to tear it down and build something more
profitable. Plot number two - save the music from the greedy
German entrepreneur. Plot number three, four, etc. - protests and
more people falling in and out of love, and father and son having
an altercation. Lots of conflict, but the beat goes on.
The
whole production is very campy. Even as the show is glorifying,
along with the music and the rather seedy bunch who are promoting
it, “Rock of Ages” is sort of parodying it, as well.
There
is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek attitude that comes through, and the
tone is set by the narrator Lonny and the bar owner Dennis, who
later dies and returns to sprinkle angel dust around. Nothing is
to be taken too seriously here.
But,
if the music of Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and Pat
Benatar and others are your thing, then come on down. The audience
didn’t let loose the way they did for “Jersey Boys,” but
many were having a good time, and their ears are probably still
ringing.
The
band was great, especially guitarists Chris Cicchino and Maddox,
as well as the choreography athletic by Kelly Devine, the set
design glitzy by Beowulf Boritt and the lighting dramatic by Jason
Lyons. It is a production of mammoth proportions.
Standouts
in the cast are Justin Columbo as Lonny, Matt Bann as Dennis,
Stephen Michael Kane as Franz, Megan McHugh as Regina and Amma
Osei as Justice (beautiful voice).
Dominque
Scott as Drew was in a class all by himself. He has a pair of
pipes that won’t quit, and we actually like the guy to boot.
Kane
and McHugh both have a good comic sense, and Columbo and Bann,
another unusual pairing, also are quite amusing, as well.
Their duet “Can’t Fight This Feeling” is the humorous
high of the show.
Other
memorable numbers were “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” Every
Rose Has Its Thorn,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and
“We’re Not Going to Take It.”
The
audience was diverse in age, and I imagine reactions were diverse,
too. Judging from the reviews of both the Broadway show and the
film starring Tom Cruise, people seemed to either love it or hate
it - few in-betweens. |
