When Comedy is the Main Event, Strength Lies in Wit (And How “Rock of Ages” Slipped Up)
In February, 5th Avenue Theater opened the 5-time Tony nominated musical “Rock of Ages”. Prefaced with a dinner at the only place to go for a pre-show meal (Palomino, just a couple blocks from the theater), I went to see it.
The cast was star-studded, as per usual at 5th Ave, including Dane Stokinger who is fresh from his role in “Annie”, and Diana Huey (an absolute LEGEND in the Seattle theater scene after debuting as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” years ago). The production introduced Galen Disston, who sings in a band of his own and had never acted professionally before. As expected, the leads were backed by one hell of an ensemble — as well as talented secondary support, found particularly in Nik Hagen as an evil German developer’s son who strives to open a confectionary store.
There’s really nothing to dislike about a musical full of 80’s rock throwbacks, like “Don’t Stop Believing,” “We Built This City,” “I Want to Know What Love Is,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” and so many others (my favorite was “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”). That is, there’s really nothing to dislike unless there’s a weakness where there shouldn’t be a weakness. Such as, in this case, the fundamentally important humor-heart ratio that the musical requires — I realized what was lacking fell into two categories: comedy and sentiment.
Walking away from the show, there was definitely a blankness in my mind when I thought back upon the plot — it was linear and easy enough to understand, it wasn’t boring, but it also wasn’t interesting. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat except for at one or two points in the production.
As to be expected from an inexperienced actor, Disston fell short with the character work required to make the chemistry between Drew (Disston) and Sherrie (Huey) soar. The love story certainly suffered, but was love ever truly the highlight of the show?
Probably not. The show is called “Rock of Ages”; it begins with Lonny (Stokinger) introducing the rock-and-roll world of the Sunset Strip directly to the audience, and then joining Dennis Dupree (Micky Thomas, playing the owner of the bar where the musical takes place) in a journey to save their bar from the destruction of evil developers. It doesn’t sound like the most interesting plot point is the love between a wannabe rock star and a waitress-turned-stripper — and it isn’t. Honestly, I came for the 80s songs.
Though, with a plot so fantastically crazy, some kind of effort has to go into the comedic finesse — and, while the cast tried their hardest to deliver jokes with the correct timing and tone, it just didn’t work out. Not because of any acting errors, but because the show felt like it had been written by a six-year-old. Besides the sex, drugs, and alcohol, the jokes were mostly cliché, overused, and immature. Paired with the unimpressive plot, something just didn’t feel right.
While things were a little rocky (ha, ha) in some areas, the powerhouse vocals and explosive visual excitement of the show truly made it worth the admissions fare. Sarah Porkalob’s character Regina (pronounced “re-gine-ah” instead of “re-gene-ah”) contrasted Nick DeSantis’ Hertz with perfect comedic harmony. Brandon O’Neill turned on his heel from his role as Captain Phoebus in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (one of my very favorite shows I have seen at the 5th) and transformed into the sex-crazed, egotistical rock star Stacee Jax and blew everyone away.
Despite some of the looming disappointments from the plot and writing, the show truly required performers — performers like the band that played up onstage and made it feel like a real rock show. Performers who could completely shred every number, even with insane dance accompaniments (again, props to “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” — Nic Hagen absolutely brought the house down with that one). And performers who interacted with the audience just enough that, for a minute there, it felt like we were at a concert — lights flashing, music blaring, the crowd singing along (usually a no-no in theater).
Director and choreographer Lisa Shriver brought life to “Rock of Ages” like nobody’s business. Out of a two-word rating system for this show, I’ll give it “head banger”. It was great, that’s all I can say.
By the time the show was over, it didn’t matter that I had kind of already forgotten the plot — everyone was practically shaking with excitement from the closing number. I’d call that a success.
