Playbill of The Week: School of Rock

4/53

My mom and I had just come out of the theatre from seeing Something Rotten and were running between TKTS and the Winter Garden Theatre trying to get tickets to School of Rock. We ended up getting a tickets at both places (at the same price. What's up with that TKTS?), my mom's in the orchestra and mine in the mezzanine, thankfully one of the ushers let us sit together. I had heard a few songs from the show and was extremely excited to see Alex Brightman in a lead role. I'm an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, so I was looking forward to it, my mother could kind of care less, but she did have a good time.

School of Rock is another musical based off of a movie. This trend has become extremely popular in the 2000's and doesn't seem to be stopping. Legally Blonde, Shrek, 9 to 5, Catch Me If You Can and Heathers are just a few on the long list of shows that have stolen inspiration from the silver screen. I enjoy seeing movies turned into musicals, for me that's what's always missing in movies. I'm one of those people that break out into song and dance at any given moment, so it's a normal thing. Don't get me wrong original content is always a good idea, but sometimes I wanna know what my favourite movie characters anthems would sound like.

The Lord himself, Andrew Lloyd Webber is in charge of the music for this high energy show. Now we all know Andrew from Phantom of The Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar and my all time favourite Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (I bet you thought I was gonna say Cats, right?) Those are only a few of the credits he has to his name. I have always been a Lloyd Webber fan since I was a little kid. He wrote big, interesting music, that was normally ok for a little kid to belt out in public. I was extremely excited to see what he did with the material, and I think we got another great rock score out of his and Glenn Slater's partnership.

The star for me in this show was, yes you guessed it, Alex Brightman. I had seen Alex in Big Fish, and knew him from his group The (M)orons with Drew Gasparini, Andrew Kober and F. Michael Haynie. Everything I had ever seen from him was awesome, so I was super excited to see him in a lead role. What I didn't realize when I sat down in my seat was that I was getting one of the most energetic, fun, sexy(yes) performances I had ever seen. It was pure joy watching Alex run around that stage and charm the pants off of the audience. His charisma oozes out of his pores, as does his talent. He's self aware on stage, and he knows what works best for him. If I didn't know the role of Dewey Finn from Jack Black, I would of thought that it was crafted for Alex. It fit his personality, and performance style perfectly, and is one of the most fun performances I've ever had the pleasure to watch. Did I also mention his voice is pretty darn perfect. It has such a beautiful quality, that even when he's singing rock music he sounds so full, and rounded. I could go on and on about his performance but I'm sure even Alex would be bored of that. So if you didn't catch it, go and grab the cast recording and get your butt to YouTube to watch his backstage vlogs. You'll be doing yourself a favour.

My other standouts were the kids. I lump them in a group because dangit they are all really talented. Playing their instruments live onstage, running around for a solid 2 1/2 hours and overall giving it. Kiddos are taking over the Broadway stages. Matilda, Billy Elliot, and even the recent revival of Falsettos. Kids are proving they are talented, hard workers who deserve more chances in the theatre. And not just to be the cute little sibling, but substantial roles. I wish I was a kid right now, cause when I was little it was either Annie, or a chorus kid in Joseph. But these kids are getting real 'grown up' roles. They make the rest of the cast more energetic and fun. You can see that it's more play than work, and that they love it.

Sierra Boggess, the Soprano Princess gets to belt out some Queen of The Night, cause why not right? And does a pretty great job of filling the comedic shoes of Joan Cusack. Spencer Mosses has a great standout moment when Ned comes out on stage in full leather, and Kiss style makeup. I think I screamed 'yass' when he walked out. Mamie Paris has one of the funniest songs in the show about giving up your dreams. I kind of wanted to punch her in the face, but I also wanted her to keep singing cause it's Mamie Paris, have you heard her sing Memory?

This show was energetic, joyful, hilarious and like watching a rock concert but with a bunch of kids. It has music that anyone can find entertaining and toe tapping. The entire creative team and cast made a show that is just a joy to watch. You'll walk out of the theatre either singing the tunes you already knew from the movie, or some great new Andrew Lloyd Weber songs. I know I didn't stop listening for about 2 months after seeing it, and I saw Hamilton in the same trip. So remember you can have fun at a theatre, as long as you are courteous and respectful to the actors up on stage, enjoy yourself, clap, laugh and love what you're witnessing, because what those humans do is pretty magical.