Musical teaches predictable lessons.
When I was in high school, I had an unconventional music teacher — the kind of teacher whose lessons stay with you long after you’ve picked up your diploma and flung your cap in the air. Her unique style did not match that of Dewey Finn, the protagonist of “School of Rock.” For one, she was a real teacher — not an impostor like down-onhis-luck Dewey.
But the slovenly fictional character and my take-noprisoners real-life educator shared common traits: Both believed in bucking authority to get things done, both listened to their students and both taught the importance of self-respect, pride in a job well done and believing in your dreams.
And both knew how to make a geeky kid feel, for once in his life, like he was cool.
Are there more important lessons?
OK, these musings are too deep for a review of lightweight “School of Rock,” the Broadway musical, with rock tunes by Andrew “Phantom of the Opera” Lloyd Webber, that’s playing through Sunday at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando.
Based on the Jack Black movie of the same name, “School of Rock” tells of Dewey, a thwarted rock star who unbelievably pretends to be a teacher and gets away with it — at a snooty private school, no less — for weeks on end while he devotes all class time to preparing his students for a “Battle of the Bands” competition.
Despite spouting platitudes about how rock breaks the rules, this show is as predictably conventional as a musical comes. You can guess each paint-by-numbers plot twist before it happens: Will the henpecked boyfriend stand up for himself? Will the parents learn to accept their kids? Will the buttoneddown principal cut loose? Will the shy student find her voice? You know the answers, right?
Lloyd Webber’s tunes are predictably catchy, especially anti-authoritarian anthem “Stick It to the Man.” Leading actors Rob Colletti and Lexie Dorsett Sharp do solidly entertaining, if conventional, work. But the child performers onstage are mighty fun to watch, especially Phoenix Schuman as reserved Zack and Gilberto Moretti-Hamilton as drumming dynamo Freddy.
As kids’ musicals go, this is no “Annie,” or even “Matilda,” but it struck a chord with two girls sitting next to me. Obviously fans, they were singing along with favorite songs in the first act. Then, a nearby patron rebuked them. Caught up in the spirit of the show, my inner 10-year-old really wanted to tell those young ladies to “Stick it to the man.”