Review Roundup: Critics Visit ROCK & ROLL MAN Starring Constantine Maroulis, Joe Pantoliano & More

Rock & Roll Man, starring Tony Award-nominee Constantine Maroulis and Emmy Award-winner Joe Pantoliano, celebrates the life of the trailblazing DJ Alan Freed. The new musical opens tonight at New World Stages, Stage 3 (340 West 50th Street). Read the reviews below!

In addition to Constantine Maroulis (Alan Freed) and Joe Pantoliano (/Leo Mintz / Morris Levy), the cast of Rock & Roll Man includes Bob Ari as J. Edgar Hoover (Bells Are Ringing), Rodrick Covington as Little Richard (Once On This Island Broadway revival), Valisia LeKae as Lavern Baker (Grammy® and Tony Award® nominee for Motown the Musical), Joe Barbara (Grease! on Broadway), Jamonté (Hairspray tour), Andy Christopher (The Baker’s Wife Off-Broadway), Natalie Kaye Clater (Dreamgirls), Lawrence Dandridge (Ain’t Too Proud national tour), AJ Davis (Dreamgirls tour),  Autumn Guzzardi (Rock of Ages), Anna Hertel (Elon grad), Matthew S. Morgan (Vegas and national tours of The Lion King), Chase Peacock (American Idiot on Broadway),  Dominque Scott (Rock of Ages Tour), Bronwyn Tarboton (Frozen on Broadway) and Eric B Turner (latest single “Ain’t No Good”).
 
Winner of the 2019 BroadwayWorld Berkshires Awards for Best Musical, Rock & Roll Man chronicles the remarkable life of Alan Freed (played by Constantine Maroulis), the boundary-smashing disc jockey rebel who popularized the records that became the foundation of rock. With an original score that also includes genre-defying hits like “Rock & Roll Music,” “I Put A Spell On You,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Lucille,” “Peggy Sue,” “Jim Dandy,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Yakety Yak,” “Maybellene,” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” “Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly,” and more, this edgy and inspiring new musical comes to New York after two sold-out critically acclaimed developmental productions at Bucks County Playhouse and the Berkshire Theatre Group.

The music of Rock & Roll Man features some of the most well-known rock & roll classics created by legends such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Lavern Baker, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as explosive original songs by Gary Kupper (Freckleface Strawberry The Musical - Outer Critics Circle nomination).

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Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times: Even worse is that since Freed himself did not sing, Maroulis — a former “American Idol” contestant who is the rare musical-theater performer able to convincingly rock — doesn’t get to do any of the hits and is instead stuck performing perfunctory originals written by Kupper. He gets to let loose a little on the title number, at the very end of the show, but by then it’s too little and way too late.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide: Rock & Roll Man is a hit-and-miss musical. As it charts the rise and fall of Alan Freed, a legendary deejay who broke racial barriers in the 1950s and popularized rhythm and blues with mainstream audiences, it creaks as often as it rocks thanks to a predictable script and uneven mix of music. Fortunately, the show has saving graces. One is the easy-to-like Constantine Maroulis leading the way as Freed. Known for playing an ’80s hair band member in the musical Rock of Ages, Maroulis is an able actor and singer (even in a wig that seems to have dropped from the sky). He hits the right notes as the show covers Freed’s eventful career.

David Finkle, New York Stage Review: Though his name may have faded since then, it hasn’t with Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak, and Rose Caiola. They’ve decided it’s high time later generations get a reminder of – or is it an introduction to? – the ground-breaking fellow. They’ve written the book to the rousing Rock & Roll Man, for which Kupper has written a few original songs but which primarily relies on great hand-clapping, foot-stomping, finger-snapping, sometime singing-along-with blasts from many Top 40-charts pasts.

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: Maroulis, who actually bears a strong resemblance to Freed (the wig helps), performs ably enough in the role to make you wish he had better material to work with, and his American Idol voice still proves powerful. As for Pantoliano, well, the audience affection for “Joey Pants” is undeniable and he seems to be having a good time onstage. But this is probably something he’ll want to leave off his extensive resume.

Suzanna Bowling, Times Square Chronicles: To quote the press release “Freed’s passion for music inspired the generation that changed society forever.” Though Freed was hunted and humiliated in this life, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rock & Roll Man will get your head a-bopping, your feet to tapping and have you leaving the theatre humming those memorable songs. This is nostalgic heaven.

Alix Cohen, Women Around Town: Constantine Maroulis (Alan Freed) has a terrific voice. Range and attitude sync with the period and genre. I find it interesting that in his (and ostensibly the director’s take) the protagonist comes off as merely misguided and suffering from a disease (alcoholism). i.e. sympathetic. While the latter is certainly true, it’s difficult to believe Freed honestly thought he was a paid consultant. Still, performance choices made, the character arrives all of a piece in this actor’s hands. If only the wig weren’t so bad.

Charles E. Gerber, Splash Magazines: The night my guest (who LOVED it) and I attended, not incidentally just before Juneteenth, was the night that Freed’s son was in the audience. I learned that he was invaluable in assisting in getting the permission to perform the classics of the genre that his father helped to mid-wife in its birth. How fitting to reflect its value in his presence. I recommend Rock & Roll Man, this highly entertaining musical history excursion to anyone who cares about American music, and what the best of our culture can be when it embraces our wealth of diversity.

Deb Miller, DC Theater Arts: Along with the well-known rock-and-roll standards, Maroulis’s impressive vocal skills are highlighted in some new original songs by Kupper, and his solid acting chops are displayed in the narrative elements of the show. They trace Freed’s journey from Cleveland, where the DJ-on-the-rise teams up with the affable and joking record-store owner Leo Mintz, a simpatico aficionado and supporter of contemporary Black music, to NYC, where he becomes a top radio personality and concert producer, and forms an ill-advised business relationship with Morris Levy, who ran a record company, owned Birdland Jazz Club, and had ties to the mob (Joe Pantoliano doubles as Freed’s consecutive partners and clearly distinguishes between the antithetical personalities of the two men). The changing locales and dream sequences are effectively established in an eye-catching and evocative bi-level scenic design by Tim Mackabee, projections by Christopher Ash, colorful lighting by Matthew Richards and Aja M. Jackson, and sound by Ed Chapman.

Truman Fritz, The Knockturnal: Rock & Roll Man is undoubtedly about the rise and fall of Alan Freed, but along the way it is a celebration of rhythm and blues, of rock and roll, of the heart-thumping, feet-drumming, fist-pumping music that provoked, polarized, and pushed forward America. It is a superbly entertaining show that will make you want to go out and buy old LPs with the great classics of rock, and educates the audience on the history of the genre as much as it engages them with enough flair, zeal, and passion to make your hair stand on end.

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