[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: Rock of Ages at Canton Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas]

Let’s Mock-n-Roll

By Tom Wachunas

   “Idon’t know where I’m going / But I sure know where I’ve been / Hanging on thepromises / in songs of yesterday …” lyrics from “Here I Go Again,” By David Coverdale and Bernie Marsden, ofWhitesnake  

   Here they go again.They’ve been waiting for a show like this – to hit us with their best shot andfire away. They just couldn’t fight the feeling to feel the noize. Workin’ hardto get their fill, they all want a thrill and they don’t stop believin’. Thefinal countdown to nothin’ but a good time and high energy is on. They wannarock. They’re the ones who want to be with you with too much time on theirhands, to kiss you deadly, and to melt your face in the heat of the moment withmore than words. Yikes.

   The‘they’ is Players Guild Theatre’s Jonathan Tisevich, directing Rock of Ages, with a scalding-hot castof 14 performers, and an equally sizzling onstage six-piece band conducted bykeyboardist Steve Parsons. The show is a jukebox musical, written by ChrisD'Arienzo with music arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp, constructedaround famous “glam metal” hits of the 1980s, with snippets of more than 30 powerballads and gushy love songs woven into the action. The original Broadway productionopened in 2009 and ran for 2,328 performances before closing in 2015.

  An insanely twistedtale set in 1987, Rock of Ages isabout life and love in and around The Bourbon Room, a Sunset Strip rock club onthe verge of being torn down to make room for retail stores. We hear fromscreeching, big-haired, crotch-grinding men and watch slinky parades ofpole-dancing, derriere-wagging waitresses clad in neon-colored lingerie(costumes by Suwatana Rockland). If you look closely enough behind thiselaborately constructed bar room façade (scenic design by Joshua Erichsen),however, you’re sure to find that much of the show is a deeply probing metaphorfor… screeching, big-haired, crotch-grinding men and pole-dancing, derriere-waggingwaitresses clad in neon-colored lingerie. 

   The story isnarrated by the infectiously goofy and mischievous Allen Cruz. He plays Lonny,the Bourdon Room house manager and sound man who has a noisy habit ofdisrupting the small number of genuinely tender moments the show has to offer. Mostof those moments center on Carly Ameling - instantly charismatic and shining inher portrayal of Sherrie, the proverbial small-town girl who comes to L.A. tobe an actress but reluctantly settles for doing lap dances – and Sean Flemingin his role of Drew, an aspiring rock singer whose high-range vocals could peelpaint. Their could-be romance is sidetracked when Sherrie succumbs to thesexual prowess of the hopelessly self-absorbed, swaggering bad- boy megastarStacee Jaxx, played with lascivious ferocity by Brandon Michael. Talk aboutbreaching the fourth wall - as very much of the action does in this sprawlingproduction - at one point he slingshots a pair of panties into the audience. 

   There’s something of the mellowed hippie peekingthrough Todd Cooper’s portrayal of Dennis, the Bourbon Room owner who decidesto mentor Drew in his efforts to be a successful rocker. Paralleling Cooper’smagnetism is that of Leiah Lewis in her role of Justice, owner of the stripjoint that hires Sherrie.  And thenthere’s Morgan Brown as Regina (pronounced RegEYEna, she’s oh so careful topoint out), an impish gadfly protesting the impending destruction of theBourbon Room by greedy German mother and son developers, Hertz und Franz,played with chillingly cartoonish intensity by Hannah Kyriakides and DylanBerkshire.

  Through it all is the titillating choreographyby Brandon Leffler – a raucous mash-up of apparent spontaneity and studiedstereotypes that leave few visual clichés unexplored, including some absolutelyhilarious scenes that imitate classic cinematic slow-motion effects toexaggerate if not dismiss the kitschy sentimentality of the moment.

   So the show is alurid yet not overly- loud caricature. On one level it’s a silly burlesque, an unapologeticparody, and an otherwise self-mocking Declaration of Dependence on Dopamine. Interestinglyenough, the cast members seem to have made a serious business out of not takingthis business of sex and drugs and rock-n-roll too seriously. Maybe you couldthink of them as Journey’s streetlights people, aboard a midnight train, thisone headed to where the laughs go on and on and on…

Rock of Ages / Through Sept.1, 2019,  at 8 p.m. Friday andSaturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday / no show on Aug. 10, and shows at 7 and 11 p.m. onAug. 31 / at Players Guild Theatre Downstage, Cultural Center for the Arts,1001 Market Ave. N, Canton, Ohio / TICKETS: $34 ($31 for seniors 65 and older),may be ordered at www.PlayersGuildTheatre.com  and 330-453-7619. 

 

For other commentaries by TomWachunas on the performing and visual arts in the greater Canton area, pleasevisit his blog, ARTWACH, at www.artwach.blogspot.com   


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ARTWACH

Commentaries and critiques on the visual and performing arts in the greater Canton, Ohio area
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