What happens when a musical film earns over $131 million on a $35 million investment? If you are Andrew Lloyd Webber, you buy the rights and turn it into the musical School of Rock with lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Julian Fellowes.
What happens when you take a dynamic, uninhibited actor who uses the stage as his playroom, add a bunch of adorably geeky fifth graders who are singing, dancing and musical instrument-playing phenoms, and add to the mix the rock musical sounds of Andrew Lloyd Webber? The combination becomes School of Rock.
So what’s it all about?
The musical starts with a performance by the No Vacancy band. Dewey Finn, who has an ADHD-type personality, has difficulty pulling back his exuberance and keeps upstaging the lead performer. Enough is enough, and he is kicked out of the group. With no income, he moves in with and mooches off Ned, his easily manipulated college band buddy and part-time teacher.
When a call comes for Ned to substitute at a prestigious prep school, Dewey sees a chance for some much-needed money by posing as Ned.
The kids are wary of him, especially the uber-organized, brainiac Summer. He also has to confront the problems of Tomika, the extremely shy daughter of gay men, who turns out to be a superstar singer; Zack, the son of an uptight businessman who doesn’t realize his son is a musical prodigy; Lawrence, who has no confidence, but is a keyboard wizard; Freddy, who everyone thinks is intellectually slow, but once he gets a pair of drum sticks in his hand, he shows how talented he really is; Billy, who is flamboyant, has an interest in fashion design, but is not appreciated by his macho father. Each of the other kids has untapped talent which the creative Dewey brings out through non-traditional means.
Dewey decides to enter them in the Battle of the Bands. They get to the tryouts after sneaking out of school, but they are too late to play. Summer tells the casting director that all the children have “stickittothemanis,” pleads for some mercy, and the heartbroken manager lets the kids perform. Of course, they get into the competition. What follows is a series of manipulations, implausible coincidences, and some out-and-out stretching of dramatic license. The result? Farce and hysteria run wild and the audience has one heck of a good time.
Do they win the Battle of the Bands? That’s not important. What is significant, is that Dewey and the kids find love and self-respect.
The musical score includes iconic songs from the film and adds well-crafted additional theatrical melodies. Among the show stoppers are “You’re in the Band,” “Stick it to the Man,” “In the End of Time,” “Math Is a Wonderful Time,” and “School of Rock.” Throw in “If Only You Would Listen” and “Time to Play,” and you have the makings of a great score.
Staging School of Rock well requires adorable music-talented kids, an uninhibited slacker dude to portray Dewey, an on-point rock band, and creative staging.
Fortunately, Cain Park’s creative theater director Joanna May Cullinan has found most of the right ingredients. In the original production, most of the kids played musical instruments. Cullinan wisely cut that number down to a manageable four. David Jezek (piano), Julia Leach (bass), Nathan Miller (guitar) and Jaiden Willis (drums) creatively wailed.
The other kids in the cast — Nya Ku, Lucas Klodnick, Harmoni Garrett, Annie Pelletier, Gigi Simone Pretzer, Kaitlyn Bartholomew, Ella Stec, Ethan Monaghan and Sam Spencer — all did a nice job of creating their characters. Douglas F. Bailey II is slacker-right as the irrepressible Dewey. Music director Bradley Wyner and his well-tuned six-piece band had the theater rocking.
Cullinan’s staging was on-target and she did a great job of cueing the comedy. Ben Needham created a turntable set that helped smoothly move from scene to scene. The lights and sound helped enhance the show.
The only missing elements were the haphazard choreography, which often made the performance look chaotic rather than synchronized, and embarrassingly bad costumes. The last scene where the kids and Dewey really break loose should have found them in funky rock costumes, not assorted garments which looked like they were scarfed together at the last moment from a thrift store.
In the long run, however, at least not on opening night, where most of the audience brought bouquets of flowers to give their children after the screaming, stomping curtain call, did anything matter except the fact that the show went on.
Capsule judgment: School of Rock is a fun-filled show with a nice moral message. The Cain Park production is well-directed and performed. The music rocks. The cast entertains. It’s the kind of show that audiences love.
School of Rock runs through June 26 in Cain Park’s Alma Theatre. For tickets go to cainpark.com.