Review: A Formulaic ROCK OF AGES at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre

They’ve broken out the teasing combs, stocked up on Aqua Net, and unpacked the leg warmers at Bill Hanney’s North Shore Music Theatre, where a high-energy production of the musical “Rock of Ages” has set up shop through August 23.

At a recent matinee, nostalgia for the music of hair bands like Bon Jovi, Journey, Foreigner, Poison, Styx, Survivor, Twisted Sister, and Whitesnake was the order of the day, with the audience rocking out and many even holding their arms aloft, flashing the sign of the horns.

Set in a rock club on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in 1987, the plot, what there is of one, centers on the boy-meets-girl love story between Kansas transplant and aspiring songwriter Sherrie Christian (Chelsea Williams) and Michigander-turned-big-city-rocker Drew Boley (EJ Dohring). Playing roles reminiscent of Sandy Dombrowski and Danny Zuko from “Grease” – with Rydell High giving way to the Bourbon Room – Williams and Dohring pair well on “Waiting for a Girl Like You” (Foreigner), Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie,” and “The Search Is Over” (Survivor).

While the show has fun with its era, the idea is that it doesn’t make fun of it, allowing audiences to care about the story. At NSMT, however, the show’s cheeky story of how we all set out with dreams for our lives sometimes devolves into parody that plays like weak sketch comedy. With director Kevin P. Hill at the helm, and fueled by a familiar and realistic score, the blame must rest where it always has with this show – on the formulaic book by Chris D’Arienzo.

With D’Arienzo’s book and arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, “Rock of Ages” opened on Broadway on April 7, 2009, and went on to be surprisingly successful, running 2,328 performances at the Brooks Atkinson and Helen Hayes Theatres. The show’s first North American tour played Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre in 2010. A subsequent tour stopped at the Boch Wang Theatre in 2018. A 2012 feature film adaptation fell flat at the box-office – despite a cast that included Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, and Alec Baldwin.

In Beverly, a vocally strong company of performers includes Matt DaSilva as Lonny, co-proprietor of the Bourbon Room and the show’s narrator, who pays humorous homage to characters like the Leading Player in “Pippin” and the Emcee in “Cabaret,” offering up high-octane narration. Evan Harrington also adds to the proceedings as club owner Dennis Dupree. The 1980s rock playlist would come across more authentically, however, were it less muted by Ryan Marsh’s cautious sound design.

As rock star Stacee Jaxx, Nathaniel Hackman has the requisite hip-thrusting cockiness of a lead singer. He’s terrific on “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Bon Jovi), Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is,” “Too Much Time on My Hands,” and “Renegade” (Styx).  

The show’s overarching plotline involves plans by German developers Hertz Klinemann (the stern Tom Galantich, who also serves as the production’s associate director) and his son Franz (a too fey Michael Schimmele) to demolish the Bourbon Room. The dubious duo convinces the city’s mayor (Kristopher Stanley Ward) that the time has come to leave behind the “sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll” lifestyle of the Sunset Strip and replace it with new construction and clean living. These plans raise the ire of kooky but determined city planner Regina (Lily Kaufmann), who raises her voice in opposition on “We Built This City” (Starship) and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” (Twisted Sister).

With jukebox musicals like this one, the challenge is to present the music as remembered and not in a stilted Broadway-musical style. That challenge is not always met here, even with Sara Andreas’ period-capturing choreography, Peter Leigh-Nilsen’s rock-infused musical direction, Jeffrey D. Kmiec’s authentic-looking sets, and Rebecca Glick’s slithery costumes. And wig and hair designer Rachel Padula-Shufelt clearly knows just how to tease a 1980s hairdo for the processed to-within-an-inch-of-its-life look of the time.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Don't Miss a Boston News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...