Theatre goers have been playing a game of cat and mouse for too long. Tickets can be booked but then its a case of will the show get cancelled because of Covid? So many times I have had the rug pulled from under my feet with cancelled productions, nobody's fault but just the way it is. Thank goodness then, that a capacity crowd at the Manchester Palace Theatre were able to let their hair down with the touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School Of Rock.
Based of course on the ever popular 2003 Jack Black movie, which sees unemployable slob Dewey Finn ousted from his rock band No Vacancy. As an act of desperation he masquerades as his friend Ned Schneebly to get the position of a supply teacher at Horace Green prep school, a very starchy educational facility presided over by the equally starchy principal Rosalie Mullins. When Dewey finds out his class of swots can play music, he educates them into the ways of rock and enters them into the Battle Of The Bands competition. And thus the scene is set for laughter and outrageous antics from the ensemble.
As in the movie, the show rides and falls on the comedic skills of the actor playing Dewey. On this tour the production has hit pay dirt with Lichfield's own Jake Sharp who channels Jack Black's interpretation and adds a sprinkle of his own magic. Sharp is never off the stage throughout the two hour plus duration, and his levels of energy leap across the footlights to beat the audience into submission. The roar of approval at the end of the evening for him is well deserved.
But this is not a one man show. Rebecca Lock as Miss Mullins, the sour faced prinicpal who eventually reveals her rock obsessed youth is a winner. She possesses a fine voice be in in her solo ballad 'Where Did The Rock Go?' or belting out the high notes in Mozart's 'Queen Of The Night'. Matthew Rowland as Ned, Dewey's landlord and former bandmate in Maggot Death tries desperately to keep his girlfriend Patti (Nadia Violet Johnson) from evicting Dewey. Both performances are of a high standard and push the comedy along. Bravo to the entire ensemble too for bringing to life parents and teaching staff so slickly.
I wish I could praise the kids who had appeared at the show but sadly the lack of a cast board in the foyer means I simply do not know which children were on at this performance. Suffice to say they were all brilliant. From keyboard playing nerd Lawrence, big voiced Tomika, guitar god Zack and the many others that populate the stage. All the kids play their instruments for real. They are of course backed up by a **** hot grown up band of seven musicans who really know how to rock the joint.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's score has combined melodic riffs from his hit 1978 fusion album Variations with some on point lyrics by Glenn Slater. There are a few nods to the music from the film, most prominently the finale "Teachers Pet" but its mostly Lloyd Webber's famous earworms that you leave the theatre humming. It was been held together with an book adaptation from Julian 'Downton Abbey' Fellowes. Director Laurence Connor has clearly known when not to mess with brilliance and transposed the core of movie, whilst giving it a very noticeable theatrical polish.
Lloyd Webber was lacking a bona fide hit musical for some years when School Of Rock came along, and its easy to see why audiences have been so swept away with this show. The melodies, the virtuoso performances by the kids, top notch comedy and above all it is a show with a heart. With a capcity audience on its feet yelling for more, this is the best antidote to the Covid blues that you can get. In the words of the song, "there's no way you can stop the school of rock..."
Rob Cope for Doctor Theatre
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