Archive for September 2010

Rock of Ages, like totally, rocks

September 1, 2010 Entertainment 2 comments

To put it bluntly: I was skeptical when Rock of Ages debuted on Broadway. ’80s rock songs backing a musical? Really? Had We Will Rock You not already tried to do a rocking musical (and failed miserably at that?)? Had Mamma Mia not shown that pop songs can be a musical and it can be done right? Why bother trying? And don’t even get me started on using American Idol‘s Constantine Maroulis as the lead character in a form of “stunt” casting.

Then the 2009 Tony Awards came. Rock of Ages won best musical, but I still had my reservations (I didn’t even remember the performance for Rock of Ages from the 2009 Tony’s, instead all I remember is Brett Michaels getting hit in the head with the backdrop during the opening of the show).

Late last year, it was announced the show was coming to Toronto. The press had a field day. And the commercials for it played nonstop on the radio. There’s only so much of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ that you can hear before you go crazy. So I decided I wanted to go.

Saturday night, I went with my family for my birthday. I was blown away.

It was nothing like I expected. It was far better than I expected. It may be one of the best things I have seen on stage in a long, long time.

Rock of Ages beats We Will Rock You for so many reasons, but the main one is because Rock of Ages actually has a story and character development something WWRY lacked, in my humble opinion (full disclosure: I saw WWRY twice when it was in Toronto and had problems with it both times).

To me, WWRY picked Queen songs and then tried to write a story around them. Book writer Ben Elton just reached too far, and didn’t spend enough time developing Galelio and Scaramouche (the two main characters, and no, I’m not kidding about their names), so we don’t really care for them all that much.

Rock of Ages, on the other hand, not only had a story, but knew there was only one way to get away with telling their story: break — no, wait, make that tear down — the fourth wall: Talk to the audience, and know what you’re doing is crazy.

Like Into the Woods before it, Rock of Ages knows it’s a show — or at least the narrator Lonnie does. He is often interacting with the crowd, talking to them directly, or as an aside. The character of Lonnie is by far the best part of that show. The characters in Mamma Mia sort of wink to the crowd that what they’re doing is silly, but they never really jump out and say it. Rock of Ages tells you from the beginning: This is a show, enjoy the ride.

Then there’s the dancing. Oh, the dancing. I’m not a dance person — can’t do it, don’t really understand it — but all of the movement in Rock of Ages would put any “real” Broadway show to shame. And you just don’t get the full effect of it by the video at the top or from their performance at last year’s Tony’s (it shows that TV really is crap at showing theatre, as Ben Elton said at the press conference for WWRY back in 2006).

Yvan Pedneault, who was in WWRY, kicks butt in this role. He is beyond fantastic as Drew. As for Elicia MacKenzie? One would never know this Sherrie was ever a Maria. I had my reservations when she won How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?, but in Rock of Ages, MacKenzie knocks it out of the park.

And, while the content is not appropriate for children around the age of 9, it is hilariously funny. I won’t ruin any parts, because it’s more fun to be surprised (in fact, the program doesn’t even list the songs in the show, so that’s a great surprise, too). I can’t wait to go back with someone who has never seen it, just to see their eyes light up the way mine did.

And, like every great musical before it, you leave the theatre thinking dreams really can come true. Even if you are an ’80s rocker.

My last post

September 1, 2010 Personal 9 comments

Don’t let the title of this post fool you — it’s not really my last post. Rather, this is an idea I got from reading Joe Boughner’s blog, 42 Points on a Double Word Score. He issued a challenge to himself and other bloggers — what would you write if it was your last blog post ever? Make sure to check out Joe’s original post, where he is linking out to bloggers he reads as they complete his challenge, and his last post and then maybe try one of your own. I thought there would be no better day to do my last post than today, which is my 28th birthday.

What is there left to say?

When it all melts away, what can be said? Can be written?

In the end, none of this matters. Sure, we all want to be remembered for something, but that’s so selfish of us. Hell, the act of blogging is a selfish act, is it not? Is it nothing more than a testament that we were here and we were important and our thoughts mattered?

But in the end, none of that matters.

In the end, it’s not how many blog readers you have, or how much money you make, or the kind of house you live in that matter. It’s the people you surround yourself with.

The biggest mark you leave is on them.

We humans don’t like to think of our mortality — we would rather pretend we will live forever in order to avoid it. But we can’t escape that mortality coming.

We are even more foolish to think that we are all going to live to a ripe-old age. We’re not. Some of us will die young. Some will die middle-aged. And, yes, some will live until they’re 95.

Maybe that’s our problem. We measure our life in years instead of in experiences. A good life, we say, is one that was lived long. Perhaps a good life is one that is lived to the fullest and measured in experiences. And love.

It’s corny and cliché, I know, but love really is what matters when all the chips fall. When you lose your job or your mind or your car, if you have the love of someone to fall back on, that’s what matters.

The love in our life is too often what we take for granted. What we overlook. We go to bed and wake up with the same person every day, but we don’t even really see them anymore. We don’t see what’s right in front of our face because we become so used to it, we look past it.

Please, take a second to value the love that’s in your life every day — whether that be your partner, your kids, your family or your friends. Stop taking it for granted. After all, a day could come when its no longer there. Then it would be too late.

Live your dreams. Another cliché? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just how we should be living. Why are so many of us slaving away at a job we hate? Why are we so afraid to try? This year, I gave a try for a dream. I threw myself out there, got to take two steps forward before the door slammed shut.

But I took that one step — and that means the world to me.

Following your passion will make you happier than you could ever have imagined you’d be. Reach for the stars — you never know where you might end up.