Thu 6/8-Sun 6/25
Do you miss the 80s? Do you wish giant busy hair and giant shoulder pads would come back, along with big, bloated tunes filled with wheezy synthesizers and posturing about being a brave, Reaganesque hero “on the firing line” or “out on the borderline”?
Then you will definitely want to check out the regional premiere of Rock of Ages, opening at Cain Park’s Alma Theatre. It revolves around perhaps the biggest real-life rock & roll cliché/dream of the rock & roll ’80s: going to L.A.’s Sunset Strip to “make it,” when every guy was in a hair metal band working the Strip passing out flyers for their show at the Roxy or the Troubadour and every girl was dreaming of being a stripper-style video vixen who ends up married to a rock star.
If you still occasionally sneak a spin of your Poison or Warrant records, you won’t want to miss this one. It’s a jukebox musical of all the tunes you rocked to at local clubs back in the 80s: Europe’s “The Final Countdown” (oh, those wheezy synths!), Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” Poison’s “Nothin’ But a Good Time.” It will be almost like Flash’s at Kamms Corners or the Akron Agora were open again! Do you still fit into those fuschia spandex leggings or the stonewashed denim-with-lace-ruffles jacket from the Merry-Go-Round at Parmatown? Wear them! Don’t forget to rock the stiletto heels with ankle socks!
The show opens with a preview Thu 6/8 and runs Thursdays through Saturdays @ 7pm and Sundays @ 2pm through Sun 6/25. Tickets are $25 for the preview; $30/$32 for the rest of the run.
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118