Theo Mitchell-Penner

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL is bursting with kids, all of them bursting with talent. Based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the stage version is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a guy who knows a thing or two about creating successful musicals. Nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, the show ran for more than three years on Broadway, a little over a year in London, and the national tour has been on the road since September, 2017. It's a feel good musical with a happy ending, something to lighten up the winter doldrums.

SCHOOL OF ROCK is a musical about rebellion, the mantra of "sticking it to The Man", of children finding their voice in a controlled and advantaged setting and finding their courage to rise up.

Every kid with a performer's heart deserves to experience three things in their childhood: access to an incredible arts program, a passionate mentor, and a really great Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. For me, that was the Springfield (Missouri) Little Theatre, Beth D., and The Phantom of the Opera. I wish for all of today's youth to find the arts and an inspiring mentor. As for Webber for this generation, there is School of Rock The Musical, which actually touches on all of the above. The tour is visiting the National Theatre in Washington, DC this month and packs the biggest dreams and highest professionalism into the tiniest bodies.

School of Rock - The Musical is based on the movie by the same name originally staring Jack Black is currently playing at DeVos Performance Hall until January 13thin Grand Rapids. Andrew Lloyd Webber added some songs and made it a musical. One part that people find hard to believe is that the kids in the show must be able to play the instruments live. The kids can sing and dance, but it is taken to another level when they are playing instruments better than most adults can perform live on stage, show after show, some of them learning their instruments in only a few years or specifically for their audition for this show!

Before the show even begins, the voice of Andrew Lloyd Webber informs us all that the kids in SCHOOL OF ROCK play their instruments live. This becomes overwhelmingly impressive as the show progresses. SCHOOL OF ROCK: THE MUSICAL, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, and book by Julian Fellows is an adaption of the successful Paramount movie starring Jack Black. In this musical interpretation, the kids take centre stage as the stars of the show.

Casting has been announced for the Washington, D.C.  premiere of Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit School of Rock - The Musical, coming to the National Theatre for a limited engagement from January 16 - 27, 2019.

Complete with lights and haze machine, Andrew Lloyd Weber's School of Rock, opens with the fictitious Band, No Vacancy, singing "I'm Too Hot for You". As the super cool rockers do their thing, rock-god-wanna-be Dewey Finn (Merrit David James), super un-cool by comparison, does his. This results in him being forced out of the band.

Rocking the roofs off theatres across the country are a group of mega talented kids who have traded their time in the schoolroom to an adventure touring the country. Leanne Parks plays Katie, the classically trained cellist turned bass guitar genius.

Audiences at 'School Of Rock, The Musical' (now playing at the Kansas City Music Hall) are in for an evening of fun.  This production is pure entertainment highlighted by a dozen songs from the reigning King of musical theater, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.  'School Of Rock' onstage offers a lot to admire and  much to enjoy including a ridiculously talented cast of mostly pre-teenagers.  

Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL coming to Madison's Overture Center for the Arts Tuesday, Nov. 20 - Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018.

Take a new look at the national tour of School of Rock - The Musical!

There is a moment during the closing scene of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock when the show transforms from a mere crowd pleasing musical, to a pure and unadulterated celebration. Having witnessed the young students of Horace Green Preparatory School fully evolve from disenfranchised, rule-following and generally unhappy children, to confident rock stars willing to 'stick it to the man,' the audience cannot help but leap to its feet and join the party at the top of Mount Rock. More than a local battle of the bands, it is a celebration of the importance of arts education, the power of inspiring teachers, the joys of finding one's voice, and of the mind-blowing capacity for so much talent to exist in such small bodies and at such an early age. Judging by the standing ovation that began before and continued throughout the curtain call, it is clear that the Orpheum audience was fully invested in these young characters, and that School of Rock had therefore done its job. Indeed, this culminating scene is the ultimate payoff that makes the two and a half hours that precede it entirely worth the investment. The only disappointment was that there was no after party on Beale Street. Armed with their instruments and boundless talent, something tells me that the students of Horace Green Preparatory School could most certainly have brought down the house.

If you think you have seen musicals with talented kids in them before, you have not seen anything until you see the current National Tour of SCHOOL OF ROCK playing this week at the Schuster Center as the opener of the Victoria Theatre Association 2018-19 Premier Health Broadway Series.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit School of Rock - The Musical has announced new casting for the 2018-19 season. Merritt David Janes, previously from the original Broadway company and the Dewey Alternate on tour, is taking over the role of Dewey. Also joining the cast are Madison Micucci as Patty, Layne Roate as Ned, Gary Trainor as Dewey Alternate, Brian Golub as a swing and Jonathon Timpanelli as an ensemble member.

Make no mistake about it: School of Rock isn't your mum's - nor your nan's - Andrew Lloyd Webber musical extravaganza. There are no massive chandeliers to come crashing into the orchestra, no fascist dictators to fear, no silent screen divas yearning for a comeback, nor are there are any human-sized felines staring at you across the footlights. Nope, Sir Andrew (as he's known across the pond) has crafted an energetic rock musical that's based on a movie that starred Jack Black and it will rock your freakin' socks off!

Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit School of Rock - The Musical will welcome eight new cast members to the national tour on Tuesday, August 28th in Ft. Worth, TX.

With back to school season upon us, students young and old are eagerly anticipating their first day of classes. But, for two handfuls of miniature musicians, the major assignment this school year is rocking around the country in the first national tour of SCHOOL OF ROCK, now onstage at the Music Hall at Fair Park, which concludes Dallas Summer Musicals 2017-2018 Broadway series. And even when the star teacher fails to make the grade, the kiddos pull together to ace the group project.

When it comes to seeing a fresh new show with low or even non-existent expectations, nothing is more pleasurable and satisfying than walking out at the end of it with a huge, beaming smile on your face. That was the giddy communal feeling that I and an ecstatic audience experienced recently during the highly enjoyable Orange County opening night performance of SCHOOL OF ROCK - The Musical, the charming 2015 Broadway musical now continuing its national tour stop at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts for two weeks through August 5. While certainly not a groundbreaking, game-changing musical by any means, the nonetheless engaging SCHOOL OF ROCK is a definite crowdpleaser worth checking out. The kids in the show? Spectacular!

SCHOOL OF ROCK is a fleetingly affable evening composed by Lloyd Webber for lyrics by Glenn Slater (Sister Act) and a book by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey). The kids are more than alright, saving the night and earning an 'A' for natural talent and a refreshingly unaffected stage presence.

Rocking performances by super kids and Rob Colletti make the National Tour of SCHOOL OF ROCK a riproaring good time. Now at ASU Gammage through June 24th.