BWW Reviews: ROCK OF AGES, New Wimbledon Theatre, November 18 2014

It would be easy to list all the ways that Rock of Ages (at New Wimbledon Theatre until 22 November) is a hideous throwback to a time when attitudes many thought had been consigned to history were staples of primetime television - but I shan't. (Our editor, Carrie Dunn, covers most of that aspect of the production in her 2011 review). Instead I shall accept, with a heavy heart, that the show's target audience will be unconcerned by such matters and be looking for a good time. So will they get one?

Probably.

It's a jukebox musical, so nobody expects a plot like Othello, which means that the "boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-again" is pretty much printed on the ticket, as is the story of the singer making it big against all the odds. If you don't like that stuff, you came to the wrong gig. The songs, though sometimes delivered as little more than snippets (and you'll find no complaint from me about that!) are sung well, especially by the leads, Cordelia Farnworth and Noel Sullivan, but the "rock" style doesn't suit all the singers and some words are lost in the onslaught of bass, guitars and drums.

There's plenty of comedy, mainly delivered by Stephen Rahman-Hughes as Lonny the Narrator, whom I found overly intrusive, but the audience lapped it up as he broke the fourth wall and ran a real risk of opening panto season a month early. There's a winning turn too from Cameron Sharp as Franz, the son of Jack Lord's evil Hertz Klinemann, the German hellbent on redeveloping Sunset Strip in a storyline that runs very close to the celebrated Simpsons episode, "Mr Burns verkaufen der Kraftwerk" - Franz even opens a chocolate shop!

There's Daniel Fletcher as a ageing hippy, Ben Richards as a washed-up rock star, Rachel McFarlane a strip club madame (the only black person in Los Angeles, or so it seems) and dancers imported directly from Hot Gossip c1978 (without Sarah Brightman - I think). Rock of Ages doesn't do complexity.

I lived through the late 80s (but not these late 80s) as had many at a very well attended Tuesday night performance. But there were many more on their feet and clapping in the finale who were in junior school (or not even born) when Styx, Twisted Sister and Whitesnake were filling our TV screens with big hair and big chords, so the show's appeal stretches well beyond its niche - as its West End and Broadway runs and UK tour attest. Not for everyone, but for plenty enough.

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