Hollywood star sends spirit of rock’n’roll
A Hollywood star has endorsed a Palmerston North school’s production of his 2003 film.
Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School is this week holding its production of School of Rock, a show based on the film starring Jack Black, where his character Dewey impersonates a teacher and forms a band with schoolchildren.
Black sent a video message to the school, which was showed to the children at the show’s opening.
‘‘Hey, you rule the school and you rock the block. I just wanted to wish you luck, send you good vibes and rock’n’roll spirit. Go get it.’’
Black then burst into song with a line from a number from the film:
‘‘There’s no way you can stop the school of rock.’’
A parent’s friend had worked as an assistant for Black when he was in New Zealand filming and had contacted Black about the school production.
Intermediate Normal teacher Barry Jones, the show’s production manager, said it was hard to keep Black’s message a secret until they played it to the children.
‘‘They just went nuts when they knew what was happening.’’
Jones, who had been involved in more than 70 shows, got rights to the show two years ago, but it was postponed last year because of Covid-19.
They had to recast the show, although they kept Jesse Wallace, who was now at Palmerston North Boys’ High School, as the lead because he was such an accomplished performer.
There were about 80 children involved in the show, including about 45 pupils in the choir.
Teacher Gillian Collett was the director and choreographer.
Act Three Productions had loaned the school a lot of equipment for the show, which concludes tonight.