Rocktopia Broadway Reviews

If the notion of Mozart's exuberant 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' married to Styx's guitar-grinding 'Come Sail Away' or a lush Handel aria bleeding into Elton John's plaintive 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me' sounds like music to your ears, this may be the mash-up for you. Otherwise, not so much.

Ultimately, though, the real problem is the set list's utter blandness. Commingling rock and classical music has birthed such wildly diverse artifacts as Emerson, Lake & Palmer's cover of Aaron Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man,' the Metallica-San Francisco Symphony collaboration 'S&M' and the popular prog band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Sadly, no such ear-bending ambition is in evidence in this show's selections. Taken individually, these songs are in the canon for a reason, of course; one after another, their effect is numbing. Judging by the evidence on stage here, if classical music spawned one thing, it is the power ballad.

The very concept of 'Rocktopia' feels so dated, like a glorified field trip to the local symphony hall for a High Art-meets-Low Art lesson in music appreciation. (The idea of blending rock and Rachmaninoff is not new.)

Rock and classical music had a shotgun wedding, and their love child is on Broadway in the form of Rocktopia. Not since K-tel's best-selling Hooked on Classics series in the '80s has there been such a misguided attempt to combine two musical forms.