"Who isn't a fan of '80s music?" he asks, laughing.Rock of Ages at TD Place. McClure and his cast feel confident that theater crowds will find a lot to love in this production. Chaos ensues as the bar attempts to go out in a blaze of glory by hosting the last concert performed by the famous band Arsenal, whose lead singer, Stacee Jaxx - played by Kenny Timbrel, who shines in the sleazy, libidinous role - is planning on going solo. The plot centers around the characters who frequent The Bourbon Room as a father/son pair of German developers (played with a quirky hilarity by Patrick Edmunds and Michael Myers) convince the Los Angeles mayor (a bumbling, funny Matthew Etris) to close down the bar and the other seedy elements of LA's Sunset Strip. "I definitely wouldn't whip out some of these moves at a current concert!" "There are definitely some '80s moves in there, though," laughs Mathews. "It's pretty much like you're at a concert, with a little more choreography than your average concert," says Andrew Jefferson, who plays earnest-but-naive bar back/aspiring band member Drew Boley. Many numbers include all 14 cast members. Choreographer Janella Young had the tall task of choreographing the musical. "Every number is choreographed, and there are 23 numbers in this show," agrees McClure. It's a ton of singing and a ton of dancing." "The atmosphere - it's like stepping into the '80s for two hours," Robinson enthuses. Robinson sings the first song of the show, and it's immediately apparent - with his husky, rock 'n' roll voice and firecracker stage presence - that he is a natural for this show. The other thing I love is that with a lot of '80s songs, it's sort of like verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus - but they've put a lot of these songs together so you just get a snippet of each, and it's like you skip the boring part."Ĭody Robinson's character of Lonny Barnett serves as a sort of narrator of the show and introduces the audience to its main setting - the seedy, historic Sunset Strip basement bar called The Bourbon Room. "Somebody with a classical flair has made them better. "I love this music as written, but a lot of the arrangements of these songs are better than what the original arrangements were," says director Ed McClure. The familiar music will inspire nostalgia but manages to sound fresh and new paired with the narrative in inventive ways: Night Ranger's "Sister Christian," for example, becomes a plaintive ballad sung by a pair of worried Kansas parents to their adventurous daughter, and Extreme's "More than Words" morphs into a wistful song sung by a homesick teen.Īdding to the fresh appeal is the creative way arrangers Ethan Popp and David Gibbs have fused many of the songs into medleys. The "jukebox musical" - so called because its plot is built around previously released popular music from the 1980s - features 29 songs by classic bands like Bon Jovi, Styx, Twisted Sister, Journey and solo artists such as Pat Benatar and Steve Perry. it sounds so cheesy, but it's truly a great thing. "It's so fun - I think I've laughed more in the past five weeks than I have in a very long time," says Mathews, who plays the part of Sherrie Christian, the small town Kansas girl who comes to Los Angeles to hit the big time.
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