Grand Opera House York – 7 April 2017. Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
York Stage Musicals presents Rock of Ages at the Grand Opera House, York, running until Saturday 15th April.
Set in the late 1980’s, Rock of Ages tells the story of Sherrie, Lauren Sheriston, a small town girl hoping to make it big in acting. Sherrie meets would be rocker, Drew, Conor Mellor, who works in the trademark Hollywood bar, “The Bourbon Room”. Dennis, Mikhail Lim, the owner offers her a job and we then see Sherrie and Drew fall in love to the soft rock songs of the 80’s with ups and downs along the way.
We are taken through the story through a narrator, Lonny, played wonderfully by Christopher Knight. He is the first character you see on stage, with his American accent and cheeky charm and is the glue that holds it all together. Knight was really outstanding as Lonny and I loved the huge, and I mean huge hair.
Club owner Dennis has his own battle to fight with ruthless German developer Hertz, Adam Tomlinson and his camp, he’s “German not gay” son Franz, Benedict Tomlinson. These 2, especially the latter, had certain members of the audience in fits of laughter that it became quite infectious. Benedict was great as Franz flouncing around the stage and living up to his role.
The ensemble cast provide a lot of energetic dancing and singing, mostly in very little clothing. Some of the female cast were that scantily dressed that a couple of times I honestly thought that there was going to be a wardrobe malfunction, which I’m sure would have pleased some of the audience.
One of the highlights of the show for me was the duet with Dennis and Lonny, I suppose another love story? Both Knight and Lim have great voices, I loved Lim’s singing throughout the whole show.
Mellor played a very convincing wannabe rock star and you could just imagine him in front of his bedroom mirror at home playing air guitar and singing along to all the songs he got to sing on stage. Sheriston was good as the naive small town girl Sherrie, but I found it a bit of a stretch to think of her turning into a stripper. The true star of the show for me though was Knight as Lonny.
York Stage Musicals, under the direction of Nik Briggs, have put on another great show. It is unbelievable to think that this is a show staged by amateurs as it felt truly professional. Well done and congratulations!
Please catch it if you can and go along to see local actors, playing in York until Saturday 15th April.