Rock of Ages

When this came up on the review list I thought to myself  'oh goodness, another jukebox show of dubious merit doing the rounds' - there seem to have been a lot of these sorts of shows coming by recently. Some work, some do not and, like the little girl with the little curl, when they are bad they are horrid! However, there's a lot of music I like from the 80's and rock has always beeen my foundation (see what I did there) so I approached it with a reasonably open mind.

Glad I did.

The format here is to tell a story and move it along with snatches and sections of 80's rock anthems - it is less about the music than the story, though don't get me wrong, they perform the music extremely well (and suitably loud). What I think rescues this show from the mire is the pure silliness of it ... and the fact that the cast and writers know its silly and play to that genre. Had they, even for a moment, taken themselves seriously the whole edifice would have crumbled - as it was, at half time I found myself in two minds (and some audience members around me found themselves back at the car park) but stuck with it ...

The music is extremely well played, and sung, the cast work as an ensemble and the audience had a good time ... what more can you really ask from a show like this