ROCK OF AGES Reviews- Page 3

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:14pm

USA Today is VERY NEGATIVE:



"You're better off buying an '80s hits collection ? or, to borrow a line from Journey, taking a midnight train going anywhere."

"In fairness, this alternately snarky and sappy songfest, which opened Tuesday at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre, focuses on a specific portion of that decade's pop terrain: the land of hair bands and power ballads ? acts and songs that one associates with fans pumping fists and waving cigarette lighters in smoke-filled arenas.

If Ages appeals to those fans, it also mocks them, as surely as the stage adaptation of Xanadu mocked roller disco, and with even less imagination. There is a flimsy plot about a rock club under threat from a greedy developer, but Chris D'Arienzo's book is essentially a series of winking setups for songs by the likes of Bon Jovi, Journey, Poison, Whitesnake and Twisted Sister."

1/2 * out of 4
USA Today ROA Broadway Review

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:24pm

The New York Times is Very Positive:

"?Rock of Ages? does not possess the deadpan brilliance of the classic mock-doc ?This Is Spinal Tap? (what does?), and two-plus hours may seem a long time to spend inside a David Lee Roth video. But in These Straitened Economic Times the allure of nostalgia cannot be underestimated. ?Rock of Ages? does not aspire to be a Broadway musical for the ages, but for anyone whose youth coincided with the time period in question, the siren call of those screaming guitars and singalong choruses may be impossible to resist.'

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/theater/reviews/08rock.html

[larry64]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:24pm

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/theater/reviews/08rock.html

oops, beat me to it!

Updated On: 4/7/09 at 10:24 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:31pm

Yep, they're very, very lucky they got Isherwood.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:32pm

Oh god how I would have loved to see Brantley rip this to shreds.

Instead we get Isherwood, the Times' Jeffrey Lyons.

Updated On: 4/7/09 at 10:32 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:32pm

oops, beat me, too!

The Times has a nice photo slideshow, too!
Awesome NYT ROA Slideshow

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:34pm

Two things:

1) TOLD YOU SO.

2) I'm not so sure Brantley would have destroyed it.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:40pm

The Times is a RAVE! I'm grinning from ear to ear! YAY! Knew it! ROA rules!

[BlueforBroadway]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:42pm

I believe Rock of Ages can positively say they had a good night. The majority of the reviews were positive.

Updated On: 4/7/09 at 10:42 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 10:48pm

It is illegal to copy and paste an entire review.

You may want to edit that.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:11pm

Wow.

Well, good for them. (And that's not meant to be snarky or sarcastic...seriously, good for them.)

Totally didn't expect these reviews and I stick by my opinion of it, but congrats to them.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:12pm

That Isherwood review is classic.
He got caught up in the fever, using the words "gumdrop" and "melisma" in the same review, hysterical. And he references Proust and his madeline, "to vouchsafe a moment of Siouxsie and the Smiths".
But my favorite is "Call it XANADU for straight people, and straight-friendly people too", I'm still trying to figure that out.
Does anyone think the core audience reads these reviews?
Looks like Hanggi gets the hit she should have had for BARE.
Rock On!

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:17pm

"Isherwood, the Times' Jeffrey Lyons."

Seriously? Isherwood is more harshly critical of what he doesn't like than Brantley... granted he plays favorites... but just read his story last sunday to see that Isherwood is far from a rubber stamp of approval.

kmc

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:19pm

I'm curious as to if the reviewers had a few drinks before curtain, whether they were supposed to or not...

Updated On: 4/7/09 at 11:19 PM

[Parks]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:27pm

Good for Rock of Ages!! I personally cannot wait to see it!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:29pm

There is no rule that a critic can't have a drink or toke no matter what the weather before the show.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:30pm

Very happy for them !!!! :))

Great nite for "ROA" !

[Holly2]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:56pm

wow! Great reviews! They so deserve it!
{{ROA}}

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:58pm

If it weren't midnight, I'd jump up and down for them.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/7/09 at 11:58pm

There is no rule that a critic can't have a drink or toke no matter what the weather before the show.


- I think you posted that under the influence!

[scott68]

Posted: 4/8/09 at 12:01am

As soon as I saw it would be Isherwood reviewing, I knew it would be either a pan or a drooling rave. The shows he doesn't like, he trashes. The shows he finds remotely ironic/tongue-in-cheek/subversive, he fellates.

I don't begrudge the show good reviews, and I actually hope it does very well. The reviewer in question has just become increasingly a parody of himself.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/8/09 at 12:13am

Isherwood took advantage of this review to tell us a lot about his youth and snobery, thanks Charles, we care.
I do like that he took the time to mention the talented cast members.

[Jane2]

Posted: 4/8/09 at 12:28am

I don't like the idea of critics in general. But if they have to exist, and if the masses of people are still going to use their opinions as their measure of what is good, well- Yay for C. Isherwood!

[blueroses]

Posted: 4/8/09 at 1:08am

"I was an adolescent pop snob in the '80s, turning up my nose at the vulgarity of straight-up guitar-driven rock to seek out adventurers on the fringe, which is to say anything British involving big, bad hair of a different sort. But while waiting impatiently for MTV to vouchsafe a morsel of Siouxsie or the Smiths, I absorbed an awful lot of thrashy pop.

Rock of Ages made me realize with humility how time can play appalling tricks on taste; songs that used to make my skin crawl and my lip curl, having now acquired the patina of age, brought forth a stream of affectionate recollection. "Don't Stop Believing" and "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and "We Built This City" are not the musical equivalents of classic Bordeaux vintages, but I never would have guessed that wine coolers could age this well. "

I actually nodded while reading that because it was my EXACT reaction. Rock of Ages is dittos and Sun-In and Lee Press On Nails and Battle of the Bands and the bad boys in detention and all that. If you would have told me way back when I was a smartass Cure/U2/Smiths/Duran Duran chick in combat boots that a show filled with freaking POISON tunes would be such a fun and sweetly nostalgic experience, I would have thought you were nuts. I f*cking loved every silly, ridiculous minute of this show and I was prepared for the opposite.

Long live ROA.

[massofmen]

Posted: 4/8/09 at 1:12am

ahhhh it feeels SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD to be right.