'School Of Rock', starring comedian, actor and musician Jack Black, was a massively popular movie due to its hilarious leading man, memorable tunes and Black’s Rock ‘n’ Roll face-pulling, but also for its key message of striving for what you love and not just academic success. It has many positive messages of resilience, hard work and dedication paying off, but most of all passion, teamwork and giving it your all.
Black played Dewey Finn, a struggling guitarist who is fired from the rock band he put together. He is a lazy, slobby freeloader on the verge of being kicked out of his friend’s apartment when Dewey answers the telephone call for his friend’s substitute teacher job and then poses as Mr Ned Schneebly (the friend) to teach fourth graders in a prestigious prep school {this is America} – Horace Green. He obviously can’t teach the curriculum so defaults to the one subject he knows plenty about, Rock Music. He forms a band with his class and enters them into 'The Battle Of The Bands' competition, all without the principal knowing or the parents… before he gets busted by the real Mr Schneebly’s girlfriend. Dewey and the kids need to move quickly to get to the competition before they get blocked by ‘The Man’.
The movie subsequently transferred to Broadway and the West End stages and we fast forward to 2022 when the rights became available for amateur theatre groups to perform the show. The creative team at PADOS have been growing this baby for a year before they put it on The Met stage this week. Last summer, with the Bury Music Service they ran Rock workshops to put together a band but not just any band. a band of quadruple threats. They needed singers, dancers, actors and musicians. And did they find any? My goodness yes! A stage full of young people who had all the desirables in the job descriptions and so much more.
The creative team must have thought all their Christmases had come at once when they cast Alex Cohen as Dewey Finn. It’s unavoidable to not always see Jack Black as Finn but Cohen’s Dewey was up there with the best of them. He looked totally right. Slobby and dishevelled. He played rock guitar (and he really does), he sings and his interplay and relationship with the children was first class. Cohen is a teacher in the real world and used his skillset to direct the kids and command the stage all night. Totally believable. Alex Cohen rocked the part with his impeccable comedy timing and never missed a beat with his one-liners to the kids. Any minor fatigue with his voice was more than compensated for with his breathtaking physicality. A show stopping characterisation from a very talented actor who has charisma by the shed-load. The audience's minds were blown.
The Met is a gorgeous space but has wing space limitations and nowhere to put lots of flats and trucks. Their creative team cleverly used fly-in backdrop projections to counter this which was clever, super effective and pushed the pace as they seamlessly moved from the school, to the apartment, to the class, to the bar and back again. But, the tour-de-force were the rolling desks which were brought on and off by the highly drilled, rehearsed and professional children doubling as junior stage managers. They were so accomplished there wasn’t one hiccup all night. Everyone knew exactly what, when and where to go.
Mark Rosenthal’s clever and deft direction was creative, pacey and it was obvious how hard he had worked to make this show happen. This is such a busy show and technically it is challenging due to all the musical equipment, on stage. Rather than seeing this as a problem, Rosenthal rose to the challenge and then raised the bar some more. An accomplished director and performer and this shone through in his vision for this show.
The show is lucky to have the talents of Gemma Price as musical director. Gemma is the Head of Music at Bury Music Service and has produced a stunning musical show. The children’s singing was flawless and the adults were equally well rehearsed. She led a fabulous band who although not directly on stage (due to the Met’s space constraints) rocked the auditorium all night contributing to the atmosphere.
Helen Wilkinson, PADOS’ Youth Director had worked her socks off to create a show this good visually. Through her wealth of experience as a choreographer, singer, dancer and rock chick, she smashed it. It was exciting, energetic, bouncy, pumping and had variety. All the band members had their own moves and characters channelled from Wilkinson’s extensive knowledge of performance. I loved the backing singers and the general thrashing which must have been a real challenge to get the kids to do it so naturally without a brilliant teacher sharing her own experience.
Leading the adult ensemble was Tracey Dawson as uptight, controlling principal Rosalie Mullins who gave a memorable rendition of ‘Queen Of The Night’ during the music class then later on remembers her own rock chick roots of her carefree youth in a soulful rendition of ‘ Where Did The Rock Go?’ A very talented actress, confidently and competently showed us all facets of Mullins’ character as Dewey’s influence coaxes out her true self, a blossoming romance on the cards and culminating in a rock reprise duet in the finale. Tracey Dawson looked exactly right and her singing was a highlight with the glass splintering top notes being smashed effortlessly.
Ned Schneebly (Nick Ward) gave just the right amount of nerdiness to be believably downtrodden by his controlling girlfriend Patty (Jess Fagelman). When Ned and Dewey played Guitar Hero in the apartment before Patty bursts in, it had me belly laughing at the geekiness of grown men and their obsessions captured in a brilliant scene between the two of them. Ward’s final scene when he finally stands up to Patti and remembers he is a rock God himself was very amusing. Fagelman’s Patty was high octane, irritating, and intense, perfect for the part. Her frustration with Dewey’s overstaying and underpaying was well played.
The adult ensemble playing parents, teachers, Dewey’s Band, roadies, security staff and everyone else were: Alison Starrs, Mark Lloyd, Jason Balestra, Amelia Newman, Tom Jennings, Isobel Cunliffe, Glen Clancy, Chris Parkinson, Lisa Lott and Hannah Cohen who all gave clearly defined characterisations particularly Zack’s dad. The staffroom scene where they sang about the new substitute teacher looked exactly like a real staffroom with its cliques and huddles and the director had staged it so well that every teacher’s personality and subject leadership could be spotted. Not a weak link in the whole cast.
Last, but definitely not least, the children. Did I say how talented they were? PADOS didn’t get a group of kids they got a band who worked together, played together and starred together in their own School Of Rock. Darcie Moore played Summer Hathaway as the goody-two-shoes band manager. Darcie’s 'Time To Play' number which opened Act 2 was tremendous. What a talent! She had stagecraft which most adult players would envy and had honed her goody-two-shoes role to perfection. Lead guitarist, Lorcan Pimulderrig’s Zack was the crowd pleaser of the night with ability way beyond his years. Camp, band stylist Billy (Cavan Jefferson) got the biggest laughs whilst Lilia Kirk’s shy Tomika’s stunning vocal performance sent shivers down my spine. Asheligh Smith’s Katy’s bass face had me smiling all night and drummer Blake Rosenthal as Freddie’s finale bow was world class. Keyboard player Charlotte Lewis soon became cool and confident after hesitant beginnings and her power chat with Mr Schneebly. Other band members were styled out with sass and attitude by Florence Johnson, Emily Sapseid. Charlotte Barnard, Harry Jamil, Caomihe Mackle, Mia Beardshall and Isabella Fallon. All the classmates looked individual thanks to Lorraine Parry’s bespoke wardrobe skills who took one uniform and customised it. Musical highlights and treats were ‘I’m In The Band’ and ‘Stick It To The Man’.
I could rattle on about how much I loved this show (oh I have!) but PADOS really have outdone themselves this time with a stunning, sold-out show which was very special to see and left us pledging allegiance to the band too. The finale involved the audience as the fourth wall was dropped and we were invited in to ‘meet the band’ and give rapturous applause.
Supported by a creative team with drive, ambition, vision and a lot of hard work, by all behind the scenes who brought a previously professionals only show onto the amateur stage but did it so well you wouldn’t know the difference. Congratulations to PADOS for hitting all the right power chords.
Reviewer - Kathryn Gorton
on 28.4.23
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