“Rock of Ages” is the only show I know in which downing shots is part of the choreography. Hey, cut it a little slack. The juke-box musical is set in a bar after all, and uses the face-melting tunes of Whitesnake, Poison, Journey and countless other hair-metal bands to reach out to a disenfranchised Broadway audience that grew up on the ’80s glam sound of the Sunset Strip.
Book writer Chris D’Arienzo says his impulse for creating the piece was to “make straight dudes love musicals.” The results of the librettist's winking rationale are onstage at the Fox Theatre through Sunday. Presented by Theater of the Stars, it stars former “American Idol” fave Constantine Maroulis as the underdog bar back who beats out a skanky rocker to win the heart of his “small-town girl.” (How else could you end a musical comedy with the Journey anthem “Don’t Stop Believin'?”)
Directed by Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by Kelly Devine, “Rock of Ages” recalls the Abba romp “Mamma Mia!” and the movie-based “Xanadu.” In its attempt to encapsulate a memorable moment in pop-culture time, it make us almost weepy with nostalgia and numbs our objectivity with 100 percent cheese.
Striking the pose of a shaggy, discombobulated hard-core rocker, this ludicrously plotted, dead-end love story mocks the time-honored formulas of musical theater and gets a little blurry and unintelligible in the process. And yet, uneven as it may be, "Rock of Ages" ultimately wins you over by virtue of its big heart and surprisingly infectious score.
When a father-and-son team of German developers wants to raze The Bourbon Room — a legendary L.A. club owned by an Alan Parsons Project alumnus named Dennis (the wonderful, scratchy-voiced giant Nick Cordero) — sleazy rocker Stacee Jaxx (Peter Deiwick) is cajoled into giving a benefit concert. But it comes with a price: Stacee nearly obliterates the dreams of mild-mannered wannabe rocker Drew (Maroulis), who has his eyes on pretty blonde newcomer Sherrie (Elicia MacKenzie).
Club habitué Lonny (none too clearly played by weak link Patrick Lewallen) narrates the drama like some erstwhile Cupid, supplying all the riffs on musical theater’s time-honored structure. As the tale lurches on, a group of protesters led by Regina (played with a grating nerdiness by Casey Tuma) chains itself to the Bourbon storefront, while developers Hertz (Bret Tuomi) and Franz (Travis Walker) engage in their own Freudian dramas.
Franz, a wildly flamboyant Andy Warhol-meets-Hedwig type, is one of the oddest personalities in this festival of fabulous freaks. That Walker is a top-notch character actor with an endlessly detailed vocabulary of tics and peculiarities is also what makes Franz so eminently watchable.
Devine’s dances are delicious good fun and when the lights go up on the big strip-club number, “Rock of Ages” can take on a smoky, visually stunning allure. (Beowulf Boritt designs the burned-out club. Gregory Gale supplies the crotch-fitting pants and layered looks of the period. And Tom Watson contributes hair and wigs that are appropriately teased, frizzed and crimped.)
In a story laced with over-the-top caricatures and voices like sledgehammers and sandpaper, Maroulis is the genuine star. Playing the sweetly gentle Drew as a vulnerable waif who truly finds his voice in his music, he has a deeply affecting connection with the material. Drew waits for his turn and his girl and his journey is the grace note of this blistering, raucous, one-of-a-kind show. For better or worse, "Rock of Ages" hits you with its best shot.
Theater review
“Rock of Ages”
Grade: B-
8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $25-$65. Presented by Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta 404-881-2100, www.ticketmaster.com
Bottom line: So bad it's good.
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