ROCK OF AGES Reviews- Page 2

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 6:30pm

from BlogCritics Magazine: Very Positive

"After successful runs in Los Angeles and off-Broadway, Rock of Ages has crash-landed at the Brooks Atkinson ? noisy, flashy, and most of all, funny. The creators of the show smartly decided to play it entirely for laughs, and the result is an evening of pure escapist fun, exactly what a city weary of bad news needs."

"This show is pure visceral experience."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 6:57pm

From NY1: Overwhelmingly POSITIVE, in fact, it's a tongue bath!

""Rock of Ages" is not for everyone, but I bet a lot of people who wouldn't expect to like this goofy musical will be smitten. Count me in that group.

This jukebox musical featuring vintage rock tunes from the likes of Twisted Sister and Bon Jovi is sure to turn off some theater purists. But it's so cleverly staged and impressively performed that it's an irresistible, offbeat trip of a show that hits all the right notes.

It's like "Mamma Mia" meets "Xanadu," but it's plenty original in its own right - and I'm not just referring to the beer sales in the aisles and the giveaway flashlights. They've captured the controlled chaos of a rock concert, while maintaining Broadway standards."

NY1 ROA on Broadway Review Updated On: 4/7/09 at 06:57 PM

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:00pm

Talkin Broadway is MIXED

This show will have none of it, and it?s that confident individuality that makes it the smartest dumb show in town. If your eardrums can?t handle Peter Hylenski?s cranked-to-12 sound design, you?re out of luck - for better or worse, that?s what this music needs. If you don?t like the ushers handing out beer during the spoken scenes, you?ll just have to not drink one. And if the book offends you with its giddily glad-handed pointlessness and its full-frontal-assault references to other stage works and their cheesy ineffectuality, that shows you?re paying attention. Rock of Ages isn?t trying to be theatre the way Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys are. It?s just trying to be a good time.

And with its just-barely-there book by Chris D?Arienzo and spine-throbbing songs culled from the discs of Bon Jovi, Journey, Poison, Whitesnake, and more, it succeeds in spite of itself - and any hopes you might have that it won?t. The lame framing device, a retrospective view of the heyday of Dupree?s Bourbon Room, a Los Angeles rock launching pad, as narrated by Sound God Lonny Barnett (Mitchell Jarvis), is enough to draw you in. The profoundly predictable romance between the wannabe rocker Drew (Constantine Maroulis) and the wannabe actress Sherrie (Amy Spanger) is enough to keep you there.


http://talkinbroadway.com/world/index.html

Updated On: 4/7/09 at 07:00 PM

[little_sally]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:03pm

I haven't seen this show yet (not sure if I will) but I'm glad it has gotten positive reviews so far.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:14pm

Variety: VERY POSITIVE!

"While "The Wedding Singer" failed to sustain a Broadway audience with its '80s campfest, that show didn't have around 30 of the decade's quintessential hits sampled by a cast that screeches, roars and purrs as if to the power chord born. It's safe to say nostalgists won't feel cheated by "Rock of Ages," and that it won't be stealing audiences from "South Pacific." But by the time the ensemble unites on Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," even nonbelievers may start inhaling the Aqua Net and embracing their inner rocker."



Variety ROA on Broadway Review

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:22pm

AP is MIXED:

"This lighthearted, comedic production faithfully retreads 1980s rock classics, performed by a talented cast and a potent house band. Throw in an arena-style light show and it all makes for a lively night at the theater."

"Constantine Maroulis leads a solid cast with an impressively natural performance as Drew, the fledgling rock star. Maroulis displays the sterling voice and easy, engaging presence that made him a favorite on TV's "American Idol." He has appeared on Broadway in "The Wedding Singer" and off-Broadway in last year's production of "Rock of Ages" at New World Stages.
Maroulis is complemented by the talented Amy Spanger in the role of Sherrie, the naive actress turned exotic dancer. Spanger, whose Broadway credits include "The Wedding Singer," "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Chicago," is perhaps the cast's most polished, all-around performer."

""Rock of Ages" should satisfy nostalgists with a penchant for '80s kitsch, but its lack of depth makes it unlikely to impress a wider audience."
AP ROA on Broadway Review

[sgv123]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:29pm

word of mouth review:

http://www.broadway.com/Broadway-com-VIDEO-ON-DEMAND-Word-Of-Mouth-Reviews/broadway_information_html/5015935

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:32pm

I wouldn't call Variety "very positive."

And what the hell is BlogCritics Magazine? There's not even a link.

Looks like someone just wants to post POSITIVE! as many times as possible. Updated On: 4/7/09 at 07:32 PM

[TheresaG]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:39pm

That Word of Mouth review is a good one. All in all, there are some very good reviews so far.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:41pm

All in all I think all the reviews are essentially positive. Too bad for you perfectliar.

All 3 Word of Mouth reviewers said they would return again.

"Worth every decibel!"
Updated On: 4/7/09 at 07:41 PM

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:46pm

How is it too bad for me? I don't care one way or the other about this show.

I'm just pointing out that you seem biased... Variety is NOT very positive. Maybe positive at best, I'd say mixed-to-positive.

And you still didn't provide a link for that bogus BlogCritics review.

[BlueforBroadway]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:49pm

Here is the blogcritics link
blog critics

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:52pm

I am biased. I love the show.

Google is your friend. Here's the missing link...or is it?? :)



Blogcritics ROA on Broadway Review

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:56pm

Check the other review threads... if you're going to post about a review, have the courtesy to provide a link.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 7:57pm

There is no denying that thus far, the reviews are on the positive rather than negative side, biases notwithstanding.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 8:01pm

To me, a negative review would be a total pan. I just haven't run across that yet. Even those that point out some things they don't like, still recommend it. YMMV

[BlueforBroadway]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 8:03pm

Yes, I believe all and all we are getting good news tonight!

I am very happy so far.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 8:29pm

Yes, congrats so far to the show. Like I said, I don't care either way what the reviews are. I haven't seen it.

But just because something isn't a pan doesn't mean it's positive. There are many negative things said in that Variety review. There are degrees of positive and negative reviews, not just pan and rave.

[lull89]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 8:53pm

C+ in Entertainment Weekly:

"With its glaring lack of wit and sophistication, Chris D'Arienzo's book might well have been cribbed from an episode of Saved by the Bell. Spanger and Maroulis are appealing in leg-warmer-thin roles, as is Wesley Taylor as a hilariously fey German named Franz, but the rest of the cast is a very mixed bag. Mitchell Jarvis vamps his way through a B-list Jack Black impression as a fourth-wall-breaking narrator/bar worker, while James Carpinello displays notably low wattage as a vain rock god.

For Gen Xers on a nostalgia trip, though, this Off Broadway transfer does provide its Memorex-induced pleasures ? often embedded Beowulf Boritt's clever set and prop design (at one point, a character gives birth to a Cabbage Patch Kid). Is Rock of Ages nothin' but a good time? Not quite. (Sorry, Poison fans.) But it's frequently more fun than it has any right to be. C+"

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20270670,00.html
Updated On: 4/7/09 at 08:53 PM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 9:50pm

C+?

For some reason I can't get the entire review to load, but from its excerpt, that is most definitely a pan. It's only EW, though. Let's see what the Daily, Post and Times have to say.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 9:56pm

That's a pan.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 9:59pm

Something tells me Rock of Ages can survive a pan from Entertainment Weekly.

I seriously doubt Brantley is going to rave...

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:06pm

Brantley will not be reviewing it..

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:08pm

Isherwood? He's more likely to give it the benefit of the doubt.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:09pm

Theater Mania is VERY POSITIVE:

"Rock of Ages
Reviewed By: Patrick Lee · Apr 8, 2009 · New York

"I wanted to explore deep and insightful theater, but instead I'm narrating a show with poop jokes and Whitesnake songs" wisecracks the infectious, twinkle-eyed Mitchell Jarvis as Lonny, the mullet-haired Narrator of Rock of Ages, the deliriously entertaining 1980s hair-band jukebox musical now blasting the doors off the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. As the song goes, it don't mean nothin' but a good time. But it's also one of the funniest shows now on Broadway.

The plot is thin by design; yet the fun is all in the tongue-in-cheek telling thanks to Chris D'Arienzo's gleefully spoofy book, Kristin Hanngi's snappy direction, and lit-up performances from the entire cast. There's Drew (Constantine Maroulis), a city boy with dreams of rock stardom, and Sherrie (Amy Spanger), a small-town girl who wants to be a movie star, whose paths cross at a legendary rock club where Lonny works on the Sunset Strip -- and one that's been targeted for demolition thanks to a father and son team of German real estate developers (Paul Schoeffler and Wesley Taylor).

Meanwhile, bad boy rock superstar Stacee Jaxx (James Carpinello) -- a vision in skintight Spandex -- is enlisted to save the club, but he is soon putting the moves on the girl and causing general havoc. It all works out exactly as you want -- and expect -- it to in the end, but with a few sly, hilarious surprises. (You won't ever hear REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" again without cracking a smile.) Apart from the disappointment that the minor character of Justice (Michele Mais) the proprietress of a strip club that temporarily employs Sherrie, remains more like a cliché than a spoof of one, the book is a campy treat.

Although the book effectively gets the audience in the mood for a party, its biggest accomplishment is how smoothly it puts the show's well-known songstack to viable narrative use. Songs such as Extreme's "More Than Words" and Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" are effortlessly made into stageworthy character ballads, while rock anthems such as Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" and Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noize" are transformed into crowd-pleasing production numbers and further enlivened by Kelly Devine's often witty choreography. Performed by an onstage band under Ethan Popp's musical direction, the music retains the sonic punch of the original hit songs and doesn't sound like weak Broadwayized versions.

The cast is perfectly in tune with the cartoon spirit of the material. Spanger is a vivacious delight in rock chick with a heart of gold mode, soaring high with her power ballads and putting a comic spin on even her most benign dialogue. Carpinello is deliciously over the top as the bad boy rock star. From his first on-stage scene being interviewed by a hilariously nervous starstruck reporter (Katherine Tokarz) he gives the audience permission to laugh uproariously with him at the character's overblown ego and self-involvement. Taylor turns his smaller, swishy role into comic gold; his second-act number with Lauren Molina, irreverently funny as a hippie protester, nearly stops the show.

Best of all is Maroulis, who anchors the show with a sweet, aw-shucks characterization that makes it impossible not to root for him. Maroulis' obvious stage chops might surprise those who know him only from American Idol, but his authentic rock vocals will not."
TheaterMania ROA on Broadway Review