Review of "Rock of Ages" at The Elgin Theatre

“Rock of Age” review performance at The Elgin Theatre

By James Mac Donald

Booked by Chris D’Arienzo Director and Executive Producer JP Gedeon Starring AJ Bridel and Trevor Coll

Book by Chris D’Arienzo, featuring songs by Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, and more. Until May 20 at the Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge St. moreentertainmentgroup.com

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“Rock of Ages” is not just about the 80’s rock music it turns the well-known classic hits into a musical theatrical production performed at the Elgin Theatre. Yes, I did say the word Musical and set back in the 80s, which for some viewers it was way before their time. (A time before smartphones existed.)The musical is more of a comedy slash drama romance and takes place in an old rock n’ roll bar located near Sunset Boulevard, LA. The main storyline plot is….the big question. “How to save the place from being torn down by a rich German developer?” This sounds like a very typical story that happens in all big cities today. All one has to do is just look around, especially in Toronto. The musical is brilliantly threaded together with the music of the 80’s genre that blurs the lines of theatre into more of a past “Much Music Video”.

Source promotional clip from Rock of Ages

The media describes it as this:

“Rock of Ages, one of Broadway's longest-running hit musicals, will explode onto the Toronto theatre scene at the Elgin Theatre. A gnarly concoction of power rock and hilarious comedy, this reimagined version of the iconic '80s-inspired production promises top-tier talent and a night that won't be forgotten. Featuring earworm 80's chartbuster music from iconic artists such as Quiet Riot, Poison, Whitesnake, Pat Benatar, Styx, Starship, Twisted Sister, Joan Jett, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Foreigner, and Guns N' Roses, this blast of power-guitar heaven will both warm your soul and rock your world!”

My first thoughts When I read this and saw the word gnarly I thought of the SNL classic series Wayne’s World. Or the other big hit of the 4 turtles using the word awesome and tubular. It was definitely a time warp to big hair and big electric guitars.

This was not one of the musicals where you see people sitting in tuxedos because who would go to a rock concert in a suit, needless to say, the audience was dressed very casually in jeans. At first, I thought they would play every sort of music played from that decade and bring back a sense of Nostalgia for the generation that lived through it. If you were a kid at this age you had parents playing the loud music in the family station wagons or minivans. Then the iconic place to hang out was of course the donut shop with the word “Tims” in it. I tried to remember the bands like Twisted Sisters from back in the day. However, I had to ask if the show played Billy Idol (not Billy Eilish but that would make it a lot more interesting). And out of the blue, the person next to me said: “It is not part of the playlist.” Obviously, some really die-hard fans had seen the musical many times.

The stage

The stage set was incredible and had that classic rock n’ roll appearance as the designer built the set using metal platforms and scaffolding typical from that period of the 80s. The set designer Nick Blais really did a lot of research to give it that Hard Rock Metal look. The Neon lighting brought back a real retro look and of course laser lights and fog machines.

Rock of Ages set

80s Rock Band members in the Orchestra seats

The music band members of Rock Of Ages hung out where one would usually see the Orchestra playing in their tuxedos. On one side of the stage were the two Guitarists ( Gino Del Sole and Sean Kelly) and the synthesizer keyboard player( Mark Camilleri). To the other side of the stage were the drummer ( Sean Kilbride) and Bass player (Mike Pellarin). The band members definitely took the audience back in time, of having rocked the look of having extremely big long hair from the musicians of the 80s. At one point the two guitarists walked out onto the stage and hung from the balconies doing their guitar solos. This was typical of the 80s when one looks back at the rock videos. The audience at points got out of their seats and sang along with the performers to the iconic songs. (On a side note, looking at the theatre of the Elgin one could not imagine a rock musical being ever performed here over the last 100 years making it even more of an iconic event.)

Rock of Ages Orchastra

The plot

The musical opens in a bar, with waiters and waitress doing their thing and then the manager walks in. They start to read about the developers planning to tear the place down. To loosely put the musical together really…. It is a story about the Rockers against the Society of Rich. It plays on the hardships of life during that time era while still keeping it light-hearted and funny to watch. The actors/singers did a great job to cover the iconic music of past rock songs. Needless to say, they did not destroy the sound of the original artists such as Poison, Queen, White Snake, Jon Bon Jovi, and more. They hit some of the hard notes that were not expected by many, so it did not at all sound like it was a bunch of performers from the next music reality show. The comedic parts were played out well and told a few good jokes about the city of Toronto. The best was when they put into the play for example the past Mayor John Tory. ( I won’t say what the joke was but let's just say it happened around Valentine's Day.)There were plenty of inside jokes to be said the least, so that made the plot even more funny. The younger audience for once was left saying What was so funny…for those that could understand the 80s Ideoms.

The Mayor played by Jeremy Lapalme did an amazing job playing the pushover stereotype for big money and big cigars. He captured the essence of why rock music existed in the 80s. Which was to stand up against big corporations and greed. The story is about a waitress named Sherrie (actress AJ Bridel) was a hard act to follow. She starts off being the small-town girl that falls into the traps of chasing dreams in big-city life. Then as typically story good girl falls for the bad boy, and she lands a job as a waitress and loses her job because of a relationship with Stacce Jaxx (actor Dave Comeau). Thus spiral downwards to being a stripper and then having once again Stacce Jaxx step back into her life only to destroy it once again. The hero really in the story is Drew Boley (played by Trevor Coll)l who plays the lead role of a want-to-be musician but never gets the right words to the song. His songs he rights are quite funny that makes the audience laugh because in the 80s people actually talked like that. Just watch 90210 or the original Degrassi High shot in Toronto and you will see why. It's a story of how the rock legend gets everything and losses everything. In the end only to have the nicer guy attempt to win back the girl in an awkward relationship after he mistakenly puts himself into the friend zone as they call it.

There is also the sub-story that is often forgotten with the father Hertz Kleimen (actor Larry Mannel) being dominant over his son that is a shy half-wit that has to obey his father. The two strike a deal with the mayor to take over the city. The shy son Franz Kleimen (actor Tyler Pearse) falls in love with the mayor's secretary but she does not like him because he is a wimp and lacks self-confidence and other things. She builds up his self-confidence to stand up to his father to try and open a candy store back in Europe. I won’t spoil the twists but it's quite funny.

The Musical Side of Rock of Ages.

This is a tricky part to say as some people have their favorite pick of music artists from that time period and to hear it played by a different singer is expecting them to play it as close to the original as possible.

I will only mention a bit about ACT 1 as ACT 2 was as equally good.

The songs played

Cum On Feel The Noize/ Just Like Paradise/Nothin’ But A Good Time Sister Christan

We Built This City/ Too Much Time on My Hands I Wanna Rock We’re Not Gonna Take IT More Than Words/ To Be With You/ Heaven Waiting for a Girl (Boy) Like You

Wanted Dead Or Alive I Want To Know What Love Is

Harden My Heart/ Shadows Of The Night

Here I Go Again

These were just the first half if you can remember any of these songs then you definitely survived the 80s or have a good playlist as a DJ. The one thing as I heard these songs was that they were all classics that at one point have been used over and over again in blockbuster movies. Adam Sandler probably used them at least once in any of his. However, to take a serious look at the music, most would say how is it possible for talented Actors and actresses to cover them all. One only has to attend the Musical Rock of Ages to see how. The one song that stands out is WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT was reminiscent of a scene from WEST SIDE STORY about how they stood up against Bankers, Mayor, and the Condo development. It is about taking a stance to do something that money can’t buy. The actors and dance choreography come together incredibly in one scene. And to add a bit more flavor the bass guitarist takes to the balcony to add the strong guitar solo.

Historical note

Broadway

Rock of Ages opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 7, 2009. It played for 2,328 performances; the longest-running show in Broadway History. The Broadway production temporarily closed on January 9, 2011, and moved to the Helen Hayes Theatre, where it resumed performance on March 24, 2011. The closing performance was January 18, 2015 (source Wikipedia )

On a fun note

I thought about how it would look if Michal Jackson's music was put into the playlist and if would it stand out like a sore thumb with guys with long hair. Luckily the Musical did not have to worry as it was mostly about hard rock such as the iconic song we built this city on rock and roll. However, the song called “beat it” would be a good choice to get rid of the condo developers. The performance makes a perfect date night because it actually inspires a great conversation that one would least expect after the musical.

In all being said the performance was worth seeing and if you missed it you will just have to catch them on the next tour. Special thanks to the Elgin Theatre and the city of Toronto for having Rock of Ages come to the great city.

Standing ovations to the cast Trevor Coll

AJ Bridel Johnathan Cullen Kent Sheridan

Dave Comeau

Louise Camilleri Steffi Didomenicatonio

Larry Mannell

Tyler Pearse Jeremy Lapalme Saphire Demitro

Jeff Madden Kae Kae Lee

Gabi Epstein

Conor Scully

Alana Randall\Tiffany Deriveau Lakota Knuckle Joey Arrigo Paige Foskett

Evan Talor Benyacar

Taran Kim

Will Jeffs

Kristi Woods

Karly Bon

Adam Segison

Maeve Cosgriffe

Jordan Joseph Mah

Band Members

Mark Camilleri, Gino Del Sole, Sean Kelly, Mike Pellarin, Sean Kilbride

And extra special thanks to all the crew members

Director JP Gordon

Set Design Nick Blais Light design Erroll Reinart, Narda Mccarroll Sound design John Lott

Video Design Simon Clemo

Costume Design Ellie Koffman

Company manager Sabrina Kells

Production stage Manager Matthew Macinnis

Choreographed by Sean Cheeseman

Assistant choreographer Melissa Mitro Music direction by Mark Camilleri

Marketing/ Communications Laura Van Leest

There were many crew members from stagehands, casting crew, props, and costume designer who helped keep the show going if we missed mentioning your names, special thanks go out to you as well.