Rock of Ages by Louis B Hobson

THE PUMPHOUSE ROCKS LIKE IT'S 1987

Front Row Centre Players presents Rock of Ages, the juke box musical that ran on Broadway for six years, as narrator Lonny Barnett (David Burton) reminds us in one of his many chats with the audience.

You may not remember what group or musician sang a particular song but you remember that song. Think Waiting for a Girl Like You (Foreigner) or Harden my Heart (Mary J. Blige). The more familiar a song, the bigger it must be delivered. Most of the songs in the show need to be sold, not just sang. It's part of the fun. It's part of the joke. Ashley Hau as Waitress #1 and Mandee Marcil as Justice Charlier understand that best. The play's romantic leads Drew and Sherrie (Braedan Hark and Rachael Stade) don't acknowledge that until well into the second act. They are far too timid with Waiting for a Girl Like You. Belting it is what makes it funny, not singing it with sincerity.

James Bellamy has given director Stephen West a dynamite set that changes shaped to create various acting areas, and West uses it beautifully, choreographing his actors to change it like some giant jigsaw puzzle. It's a great use of a set.

West's directing definitely stresses the comedy in Chris D'Ariemzo's book. This is one of those silly, boy and girl really like one another but they keep misinterpreting each other's signals. In an hilarious exchange at the end of the show, Lonny tells Drew that the writer has doomed him, so it's up to Drew to not obey the script and tell Sherrie how much he cares for her. This means that Drew gets to sing Journey's O Sherrie with as much gusto as possible, and this is how Hark handles it, and gets the big laugh. The audience is ahead of him. They've been waiting for this song ever since she told us her name at the top of the show.

Burton and Jeremey Walker get to sing REO Speedwagon's I Can't Fight this Feeling to announce their same sex relationship and it gets the laughs intended and deserved because they do it with such pizzazz. They see the joke so the audience does too.

West's choreography is not nearly as creative as his staging but it does keep the stage filled with action.

Front Rows' Rock of Ages is one of those productions where you know the actors are having a great time up there and it's contagious which means the night I saw it, the audience was caught up in all the fun.

There was a medical emergency in the audience early on in act one which was handled with true professionalism.