A Substitute Teacher Puts a Spin on the 3 R's—Rock, Roll and Rebellion
A disreputable charmer brings the joy of music to a staid community while stirring up romance with an uptight principal. If that plot sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s “The Music Man," but with a slightly different agenda. The Harold Hill figure in this case is called Dewey Finn, and he has real instruments instead of imaginary ones to offer, and the music he’s evangelizing isn’t Sousa—it's the Stones.
It's where student unrest comes in smaller packages and threatens to disrupt parental authority (the key title in the score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glenn Slater is called “Stick It to the Man”). And trouble, we are told, isn’t something music will prevent but something it will enhance: “Wreck your room and rip your jeans / and show ’em what rebellion means.”
So, if you are willing to maybe overlook a few trite sentiments like that, “School of Rock,” which officially opened this past Wednesday night at the Moonlight Amphitheater, has a terrifically warm central performance by the hitherto unheralded Zane Camacho as the slightly rotund, wild-eyed Dewey Finn, setting a tone of unwashed hedonism mixed with reassuring wholesomeness. The show triumphs with clean, swift staging under Jamie Torcellini’s (Broadway: “Cats,” “Jerome Robbins Broadway,” “Billy Elliot) direction, an exceptionally gifted supporting cast and ensemble—and, for those who like to sit up close, maybe even some temporary deafness. The big gimmick is of course the kids. Their soulful, not-so-little voices (both melting audiences' faces with their rock riffs and crooning to their parents’ ears in “If You Would Listen”) stole the whole show.
But what child could resist those urges when the self-appointed healer unlocking that inner rocker is as lovable (if exasperating) as Dewey, who has just been kicked out of the band he helped found for being an obnoxious, egomaniacal jerk. In a desperate scheme to come up with the rent money, Dewey passes himself off as a substitute teacher at Horace Green prep, an academically snooty private school for the offspring of young urban professionals, which, in material like this (the book is by “Downton Abbey’s” Julian Fellowes), inevitably means a place of grim, overscheduled automatons with horrible parents. They are either radically over- or under-involved moms and dads who seem to be lifted wholesale from “Modern Family,” largely ignoring the feelings of their impressionable progenies. Not to worry: Dewey, one by one, lifts the pall of lockstep ambition off each ten-year-old in his class, organizing them into a mini-band of rebels, and if he teaches them no math or history, at least he gets them jamming on “Satisfaction.”
Facing a classroom of 10-year-old rule followers whose achievements are measured in gold stars, however, is not an easy task, and Dewey is flabbergasted when his students cite Christina Aguilera, the musical ''Annie'' and Liza Minnelli as their musical influences, claiming total ignorance of Dewey's personal hard-rock pantheon. He immediately undertakes a drastic re-education crash course to indoctrinate his students to the gospel according to Led Zeppelin and the Ramones. In a matter of weeks, he transforms this class of pint-size nerds into a hard-driving band named School of Rock, which struts all the right defiant poses as it blasts out power chords.
The no-nonsense school principal who hired him, Rosalie Mullins (Kelley Dorney in her Moonlight debut), is a model of nervous rectitude behind whose uncompromising eyes flash a tiny glint of rebellion. And, as it turns out, two sips of beer is all it takes to unleash Rosalie's inner Stevie Nicks.
Drew Bradford plays unassuming roommate Ned Schneebly, Dewey's longtime friend, former bandmate, and...identity theft victim. Ned is very easily manipulated, and tends to let people walk all over him—especially his girlfriend, Patti (portrayed by an incredible Angela Chatelain Avila). She is very domineering, and doesn't let Ned make any decisions for himself. She hates Dewey and wants him out of the apartment and out of their lives.
As Dewey, Mr. Camacho easily assumes Jack Black’s “always-bigger-than-life” singular magnetism, perfectly posing as a pitch-perfect yet spastic slacker, fingering away at his air guitar, and tongue flicking to the insane, killer licks in his head. Mr. Camacho also proves his brazen rock pipes well enough with the required atrocious excretions—music composed and written by Webber and Slater (“When I Climb to the Top of Mount Rock,” and “Children of Rock”)—and later, with a plucky charm, leads the kids in the show’s theatrically conceived “You’re in the Band” in which Dewey first turns his charges into little Jaggers.
Mr. Comacho literally sings the “Queen of the Night’s” aria from “The Magic Flute” in a Webber arrangement that makes it sound like switched-on Mozart, cranked up and feeding the fire. A number of the most successful songs in the docket, however, are those that split the difference between rock and ballad, like Ms. Dorney’s star-turned solo, “Where Did the Rock Go?”—which you could imagine Bonnie Raitt singing.
But, as I’ve said before, it’s all about the kids. They sing extremely well, are mostly not overly adorable (gotta keep that edge if you’re going to do rock), and, as the pre-show announcement makes clear: several do play their own instruments. And the fact that each has a predictable arc and a backstory full of clichés does little to diminish the awwww factor as music transforms them into an underage troupe of axe-shredders and head bangers.
The tense guitarist (Mason Trueblood as Zack) loosens up and becomes the flyest in the room; the shy vocalist (Laila Christine's Tomika) grabs the spotlight and channels Jennifer Hudson; gluten-intolerant Lawrence (AJ Gange) turns cool, but really heats up the keyboards; the quiet, cello artist (Chloe Oh as Katie) finds bass guitar her calling; the hyper-achieving brainiac finds the job as band manager worthy of her competence (Summer, played by Erin Choi); and a novice costumer (Nikko Broitman's Billy) suddenly emerges as a flamboyant combination of Edith Head and Carson Kressley.
Rounding out the kids are Billy McGavin's Theo, Backup Singers Shonelle (Emina Serdarevic) and Marcy (Kaia Wood), tech wizard Mason (Ethan Trueblood), James (Melvin Matthew Pluciennik) on security, and Sophia and Madison (Charity Rose and Evelyn Boren) as the roadies. Bryce Hamilton beautifully plays the uptight, European music teacher, Ms. Sheinkopf, who loves to bark orders, has a passion for the classical and a hatred for anything rock and roll.
The kids' scenes with Dewey, though completely pro forma and handpicked like crazy, unwind fast and jokey, mostly thanks to Mr. Camacho’s quick-mindedness, who closely follows Jack Black’s style, and has a thousand ways of making inappropriateness cute. Many of his lines appear to be adlibs, sounding very natural. But whether or not that's true, when he hands out a good one after being badgered by Ned and his girlfriend (“I am so sick and tired of being the guy everyone comes to for the money I owe them”), he shows he knows how to sell them too.
As a big kid himself, the energetic Mr. Camacho is all over the stage as he convinces his students to form a band. Yet, it’s his interactions with the prim and proper principal (played by the outstanding Ms. Dorney) that adds unanticipated breadth to his persona. Their interactions and banter are a clash of opposites, with perfectly matched comedic timing, with a few romantic sparks between them making things interesting. The big payoff for everyone is later at the Battle of the Bands, with the musical staying true, if not to its school, at least to rock 'n' roll, and you have a goofy smile on your face at the end of the show.
So, you can forget all that touchy-feely blather about getting in touch with your wounded inner child. This irresistibly good-natured comedy proposes a far bolder and more playful path toward self-realization. It imagines that deep in the soul of every child, parent, and even the crustiest school principal, a suppressed rock 'n' roll maniac is clamoring for release.
Moonlight Stage Produtions Presents, School of Rock, Now Playing at Moonlight Amphitheatre, Brengle Terrace Park, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista; Featuring Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics by Glenn Slater (“Sister Act,” “The Little Mermaid”); Book by Julian Fellowes (“Downtown Abbey”); Directed by Jamie Torcellini (Broadway: “Cats;” “Billy Elliot”); Choreographed by Bill Burns (Moonlight: “Beauty and the Beast,” “Something Rotten”); Musically Directed by Lyndon Pugeda; Conducted by Tamara Paige; Sound Design by Bryon Andersen; Projection Design by Blake McCarty; Lighting Design by Jennifer Edwards; Hair & Wig Design by Peter Herman; Set Design by Nicholas Poting; Props by Bonnie Burban; Costume Coordination by Raven Winter; Stage Management by Melissa Monilla; Producing Artistic Director Steven Glaudini; Executive Director of Programming & Ops. Is Mike Bradford.
WITH: Zane Camacho is Dewey Finn; Drew Bradford is Ned Schneebly; Kelley Dorney is Rosalie Mullins; Angela Chatelain Avila is Patti DiMarco; Bryce Hamilton is Ms. Sheinkopf/Ensemble/Rosalie U/S; Laila Christine is Tomika Spencer-Williams; Evelyn Boren is Madison/Freddie U/S; Nikko Broitman is Billy Sandford; Erin Choi is Summer Hathaway; Chloe Oh is Katie/Zack U/S; AJ Gange is Lawrence Turner; Eli Pletner is Freddy Hamilton; Billy McGavin is Theo/Ensemble; Charity Rose is Sophie/Tomika U/S; Mason Trueblood is Zack Mooneyham; Melvin Matthew Pluciennik is James/Lawrence U/S; Kaia Wood is Marcy/Katie U/S; Ethan Trueblood is Mason; Emina Serdarevic is Shonelle/Summer U/S; Josh Bradford is Ensemble/Theo U/S; Kristen Daniels is Ensemble/Patti U/S; Michelle Cohen is Ensemble/Ms. Schneinkopf U/S; Dan Mason is Ensemble; Greg Nicholas is Ensemble; Piatt Pund is Ensemble/Dewey U/S; Maybelle Shimizu is Ensemble; Anthony Vacio is Ensemble/Ned U/S; Shanyeyah White is Ensemble; E.Y. Washington is Ensemble; Amanda Wright is Swing; Nick Siljander is Swing; Jayden Polliard is Youth Swing; Colette Nucci Coogan is Youth Swing.
School of Rock will play through July 27th, with performances at 8PM, Wednesdays through Sundays. Gates open at 6:30PM for dining and picnicking. Table reservations on the Moonlight Patio are available for $5 per person and includes early entry at 6PM. For Tickets ($15-60), phone 760-724-2110 or purchase at www.moonlightstage.com
UPCOMING MOONLIGHT STAGE PRODUCTIONS 2024 SEASON
“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” – August 14-31
“Tootsie” – September 11-28
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
Photo Credits: Karli Cadel Photography
Comments