Tony Tuesday: Rock Of Ages
Today we’re going back to the late noughties to melt our faces off with some rock! Today’s TONY Tuesday is:
“I Wanna Rock/Don’t Stop Believin’” from Rock of Ages at the 2009 TONY awards ceremony.
Rock of Ages is a 2005 jukebox musical celebrating the genre of rock and using some of its greatest songs from the 1980’s. The show generally pokes fun at the musical form, breaking the fourth wall and addressing the fact that they are in a musical. The self-deprecation also extends to the plot, which is highlighted as the classic “wannabe singer ends up as waitress in a dive bar where she meets a broody guy who dreams of becoming a rock star”. The show also makes fun of the fact that it was denied rights to the song it is entitled after and any other Def Leppard songs.
The show started out in Los Angeles in 2005, having a limited engagement in a club on Hollywood Boulevard. After that, the show had a very popular second run in 2006 at the Vangaurd in Hollywood, before moving to Ren-Mar Studios playing to sold out crowds, followed by a stint in Las Vegas. The musical finally made its New York premiere in October 2008 when it opened Off-Broadway at New World Stages. For the New York engagement, the producers appointed Kelly Devine as the new choreographer and enlisted Ethan Popp as the new music supervisor, as well as arranger and orchestrator. The band for the show stayed onstage for the entire performance and were heavily featured/used as the bands for characters, such as Stacie Jaxx.
After a successful run Off-Broadway, the show transferred to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway, opening for previews on March 17th 2009, directed by Christine Hanggi. The opening night cast included: Constantine Maroulis, Amy Spanger, Mitchell Jarvis and Wesley Taylor. The show was a hit and enjoyed a strong run, transferring to the Helen Hayes theatre in 2011, before closing there in 2015 after 22 previews and 2,328 regular performances in total. The show was nominated for 5 2009 TONY awards including ‘Best Musical’ but failed to win any.
The show opened in London’s West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2011 starring Oliver Tompsett, Simon Lipkin, Shayne Ward, Sandy Moffat and Jodie Jacobs. Amy Pemberton was originally cast as Sherrie but after the first week of previews fell ill. Her understudy Natalie Andreou took over the role and played opening night. She later took on the role full-time when Pemberton decided to drop out. The show transferred to the Garrick Theatre in January 2013 where it eventually closed in November of the same year.
Rock of Ages has endured multiple US and UK tours and several productions globally. It remains one of the most popular and successful jukebox musicals to date, even spawning a 2012 motion picture starring Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones. If you haven’t listened to it Besties, we suggest you do. Don’t you wanna rock!?
Cast recording available on Spotify and AppleMusic.
FACTS:
Music: Various
Lyrics: Various
Book: Chris D’Arienzo
Theatre: The Brooks Atkinson and The Helen Hayes.
Run: March 17th, 2009 – January 18th, 2015 (22 previews, 2,328 performances)
TONYS:
(NOMINATED) Best Musical, Best performance by a leading actor in a musical - Constantine Maroulis, Best direction of a musical – Kristin Hanggi, Best costume design of a musical – Gregory Gale, Best sound design of a musical – Peter Hylenski.
