‘Rock of Ages’ is a real headbanger’s ball
After — well, you know — Houston deserves a night out like “Rock of Ages.” It’s been 19 months since a Theater Under The Stars production at the Hobby Center, longer for a nontouring show. Thursday night, Chris D’Arienzo’s celebration of cheesy ’80s rock felt like a huge collective sigh of relief, both from the company onstage and for those of us in the audience.
Director and choreographer Jessica Hartman’s show, onstage through Oct. 17, is a whirl of kinetic energy and acid-washed denim, stitching together more than two dozen songs that live on through stations like Sunny 99.1 and supermarket soundtracks.
It’s campy as all get-out, and everybody’s in on the joke. But thanks to its dynamic and occasionally shameless cast, who are delightful across the board, “Rock of Ages” is so full of feelgood energy that any cringe moments are easily overwhelmed. The costumes and production design are likewise spot-on, down to the men’s room flyers and scaffolding made to resemble Marshall stacks.
Of course, the songs dictate certain elements of the story. How could they not? The female lead, a game and emotive Diana Huey, is named Sherrie, primarily so her would-be lover can croon “Oh Sherrie” at a pivotal Act 2 moment. Her counterpart, Drew (the charismatic Justin Matthew Sargent), hails from Detroit because it sets up the climactic “Don’t Stop Believing.”
To be sure, “Rock of Ages” confines itself to a certain subset of ’80s music, one that is both plausible and affordable. Hence no Madonna, Prince or U2; nor, for a show largely set at a mock Whisky a Go Go, is there any G’N’R, Van Halen, or Mötley Crüe. (Securing the licensing rights for the songs the show does use feels like a minor miracle as it is.)
Hartman and company really put those songs to work, too. Several numbers, including “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and “Here I Go Again,” advance multiple subplots at once. Others, such as “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “Heat of the Moment,” form a sort of inscene dialogue with each other. A case could be made that the orchestra, led by guitarists Mike Wheeler and Frank DiBretti, are the real stars of “Rock of Ages.”
Such as it is, the plot revolves around the Bourbon Room, a Sunset Strip institution that has lately found itself in danger of becoming a Foot Locker. As city planner turned activist Regina (Teresa Zimmerman) rallies to save it, affable owner Dennis (Steven Bogard) pins his hopes on a surprise visit from Stacee Jaxx (Brett Stoelker), a dimwitted rock star with Bret Michaels swagger and Axl Rose attitude.
Meanwhile, Drew has rockstar dreams of his own, but his lyrics are hardly Bruce Springsteen. Worse, a promising date with Sherrie quickly heads into the Friend Zone. Any mawkish moments are quickly dispelled by Justin Collette as narrator Lonny, unafraid to break the fourth wall with puckish charm. And the nearslapstick chemistry between father-and-son German developers Brian Mathis and Drew Redington scores highly on the laugh meter.
Once the show sets its plot wheels in motion, it hardly takes a Ph.D. to guess how things will play out. All the more reason to soak in the performances, especially Nicole Powell’s formidable pipes on “Shadow of the Night” and “Any Way You Want It.”
But for all of its Frederick’s of Hollywood trimmings, at heart “Rock of Ages” is an old-fashioned story about falling in love and following your dreams: an escape from reality full of songs that, however improbably, refuse to die. Two lighters up.