Words by Sian Hodkin
Once we hear the words ‘Whitesnake’ and ‘Musical’ in the same sentence we’re immediately intrigued, thankfully ‘Rock of Ages’ at the Lyceum Theatre pulled out all the stops to bring glam rock to Sheffield.
The story is set on Sunset Strip, where life is mainly sex, drugs and of course, rock and roll at The Bourbon Club owned by Dennis Dupree and assisted by his sidekick/main narrator, Lonny. We meet Drew, an aspiring rock star (Noel Sullivan – yeah, Hear’Say fame, who knew!?) who works at The Bourbon Club just waiting for his big break. As a counter story we also meet Sherrie Christian (Cordelia Farnworth) who’s on her way to Sunset Strip with a dream of being a successful actress. We’ve all heard the story before, boy meets girl, both on their journey to fame and just so happen to fall in love, however there are plenty of obstacles in their way.
There’s also the sub-plot where big time German developers Hertz Klineman and his son Franz convince the mayor to ditch the raucous lifestyle of Sunset Strip and let them develop it into a consumer nightmare full of shopping centres and Burger Kings. Then it’s a battle between the protestors led by Regina and the developers to see just what will win, rock or money.
All of this story was demonstrated through classic rock, from ‘We Built This City’ by Starship, ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe and of course ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey, as well as many more. It had everyone singing and clapping along – as well as the odd dancer or two. It really was the quintessential feature of the play and really pulled it all together, the writers tied it in perfectly and the performers were incredible.
The show was everything that I expected, big hair and double denim, as well as being extremely sex driven which had the risk of being slightly uncomfortable, however the humour of the show managed to overshadow any awkwardness and it was hilarious. A stand out character for us was Lonny (Stephen Rahman-Hughes) who was brilliant and was a constant reminder of the boundaries between the play and real life. Another favourite was Ben Richards as Stacee Jaxx, your stereotypical, badly behaved rock star who everyone hates to love and loves to hate.
Hands down one of SHULife’s favourite performances of the year. ‘Rock of Ages’ was sexy, hilarious and borderline genius, what more could you want from a play?
Tickets available from www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/
Feature Photo Source: Facebook.
