Review: 'Rock of Ages' Toronto cast

The 1980's were a unique time in popular music. Big hair and glam rock vied with pop ballads and drivingly aggressive metal for fan favor. Jeans were tight, shirts were colorful and the one thing everyone agreed about was the fact that nobody agreed what type of music was 'best.'

It's all brought back in a high energy juke box show Rock Of Ages that is currently Toronto's hottest ticket.  We've seen this type of show before from Mamma Mia to We Will Rock You, and Mirvish productions is clearly courting that same audience with Rock of Ages.

 As it happens Rock Of Ages has a less insulting plot than We Will Rock You, and the collection of songs is more variable but it comes closer to capturing the spontaneous fun of the original production of Mamma Mia.

 

 

The show weaves together two dozen songs by Journey, Triumph, Poison, White  Snake, Styx  and others with a slender story set in the city of Angels in the middle of that turbulent decade. The framework that Chris D'Ariennzo has concocted is set in Dennis Dupree's Bourbon Club, a run down joint slated for demolition.  Drew, the busboy, has dreams of becoming a world famous singer/songwriter and falls instantly in love with Sherrie, an aspiring actress.  Naturally there are complications, but (surprise, surprise) everything works out in time for the finale.

The litmus test for a show like this is how well would it be received with an entirely original score instead of recycled pop songs. I doubt it would last a week: It isn't the story that draws audiences to Rock of Ages. It is the music, and the performers and band certainly deliver the high decibel goods here.

 The performances have energy to spare starting with the charismatic Yvan Pedneault as the Drew. We already know from We Will Rock You that Pedneault has an amazing set of pipes. Working closely with a dialect coach he has all but eliminated his French Canadian accent, but even so they inserted a few lines to take Drew's journey from Detroit to L.A. on a detour through Montreal.  It's a loose enough show to easily accommodate that kind of change.  Even so, Pedneault infuses the role with his natural boyish charm making his sudden infatuation with Sherrie plausible.

As Sherrie, Elicia MacKenzie successfully shakes off Maria Von Trapp's squeaky clean image to portray a girl from Chicago who arrives on the Sunset Strip with dreams of movie stardom but is reduced to stripping just to stay alive.  She makes Sherrie's naiveté touching where it could be cloying, but even she seems baffled by the sudden often inexplicable shifts her character goes through. Shoe does duet nicely with Pedneault on the big ballads.

 The secondary characters attract interest thanks to some broad but well played performances including Peter Deiwick as the trouble glam-rock boy Stacee Jaxx, Josephine Rose Roberts as the activist Regina, and Cody Scott Lancaster as Franz, who along with Victor A. Young as Hertz want to tear down the bar.

Aaron Walpole entertains the crowds with his antics as Lonny, the club DJ and narrator of the show. (You can always tell when a book writer is too inexperienced to be able to set up a narrative without a character to talk us through it. It's a conceit that too many shows seem to rely on lately.) Walpole is forced to scream at us, do gymnastics and trot out tired jokes as if Lonny constantly feels the need to "entertain" the crowds. He makes it all work, though even he has trouble navigating one of the show's most ludicrous plot twists where  Lonny and club owner Dennis declare their unrequited love in "Can't Fight This Feeling."  It's one of an endless parade of clichés that string the songs together.

David W. Keeley plays Dennis, the tired, older, been-there-seen-that guy who still envies "the kids" who still have their lives ahead of them.  It's such a solid, grounded performance that you wish he actually had more to do than just react. Where is his back-story? What drives him to want to keep The Bourbon Club open?

Again we come back to the show's basic weakness. A musical play needs a book that is more than just a story. The book has to be the backbone that supports the score, characters, the design elements and every single element on stage.  The book has to do more than just cleverly cue in the songs. Many wonderful scores have been undercut by clumsy, awkward storytelling.  The best books – be they original or based on exiting movies, plays or novels, have a cohesiveness that could allow them to stand alone without music.  Once the book is that well-built the other elements will only enhance the total experience.

It is true you can coast on star performances, spectacular set designs, and the strength of the score, which director Kristin Hanggi does rather spectacularly. She is aided by some enthusiastic choreography created by Kelly Devine and executed with panache. The sets and lighting appropriately garish and certainly effective in capturing that 80-s rock concert style. In fact everything about Rock of Ages the show is first class, except the book.

 

 

Rock of Ages continues indefinitely at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. For tickets go to www.mirvish.com or call 416-872-1212. Rock of Ages also has a daily lottery 2 hours before each performance.  Names will be drawn for 22 seats at $25 each in the very front row of the orchestra level and in box seats. This lottery is available only in-person at the box office, cash only, with a limit of two tickets per person.

 

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