“‘Rock of Ages’ celebrates the power ballads, guitar-driven romps and heavy-metal masterworks of 1980s classic rock,” writes Tribune critic ChrisJonesTrib.
) and the new made-in-Chicago production at the Mercury Theater impressed me the most — at least since the original Broadway production with Constantine Maroulis playing the rock star wannabe Drew in love with the conveniently named Sherrie, fresh off the bus from Kansas and altogether too interested in the badly behaved rocker, Stacee Jaxx.
In fact, director Tommy Novak’s Mercury production in some ways works better than the original, especially when it comes to the dumb subplot involving a German father and son who want to bulldoze Dennis DuPree’s historic Bourbon Room club. In every other production I’ve seen, including that has been a cringeworthy collection of Teutonic stereotypes that bring the show down.
The two leads, Kayla Shipman as peppy Sherrie and David Moreland as droopy Drew, are knockout singers; Shipman really is a colossal new talent who will be going all kinds of places, likely not including small towns in Kansas. Add in a very fun narrator Lonny from Michael Metcalf, a droll Dennis from Steve Watts and you have, as the show likes to say, nothing but a good time.
Novak and the musical director Linda Madonia make use of the band being front and center on Bob Knuth’s set and they amp up the volume as much as the pace. I can’t say the prospect of another “Rock of Ages” had me salivating, but the party on Southport Avenue Friday night was definitely big fun, even spilling over into theWorth remembering how much we all missed this kind of escapist romp during the pandemic; for the record, I’ve never rated a production of “Rock of Ages” this highly.
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