School of Rock - New London Theatre

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kport
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School of Rock - New London Theatre

Post by kport »

Andrew Lloyd Webber has launched School of Rock at London's New London Theatre (where Cats ran for 21 years). The first show will take place 24th October.

https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/theatre ... in-londons
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jmh2014
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Re: School of Rock - New London Theatre

Post by jmh2014 »

Saw School of Rock this past weekend.

The New London Theatre is quite small, and it seems like you will get a good view from most seats. The stalls go right up to the stage, similar to the Bristol Hippodrome, and up front you can feel the stage vibrate as various times.

It is very faithful to the plot of the film, with obviously a lot of added musical numbers. Dewey Finn was played by Gary Trainor rather than David Flynn, a fact I did not notice until after the show. He was superb and there was no way to tell that he was not the lead actor for Dewey.

They have 39 kids in the production, split into 3 groups of 13. Not only do they have to act, sing, dance and for some play instruments, they all have to learn an American accent for the show.

I didn't think I would see a show again that would rival the emotion produced by Billy, but School of Rock comes damn close. The musical ability of the kids is undoubtedly the highlight and their enjoyment is obvious for all to see, with "battle of the bands" being pure magic.

The house band are located top right of the stage and they all stand and watch the kids perform at the end.

With rock music being the theme guitar and drums are central to a lot of the numbers, but there are a few lighter ones in there to provide a nice contrast. The only slight negative is due to the loud rock themes, some of the dialogue can get lost.

The staging is very clever and anyone who saw Cats will be familiar with the turntable in the floor around which a lots of the sets are focused.

It is currently running to Feb 15th 2017, but they have announced auditions for early 2017 so it looks like they plan to extend this.

For pure entertainment, it will be hard to beat.

http://uk.schoolofrockthemusical.com/?_ ... 1479414144
cheltonian
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Re: School of Rock - New London Theatre

Post by cheltonian »

This show is still going strong in the same London venue although it's now know as The Gillian Lynne Theatre. I attended a matinee performance last week and, despite some initial misgivings about the noise level, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I can't really agree with the previous reviewer about it having any emotional depth, the story is preposterous and the adult characters are all cartoon charicatures so the show is pure escapism rather than having any link to reality. Having said that, it is a wonderful vehicle for showing off a great deal of young talent. The childrens singing was excellent in the ensemble pieces and the instrumental playing very impressive. I was not expecting the show to include "The Queen of the Night" (from Mozart's Magic Flute) accompanied by children on 2 violins, cello, piano, flute and recorder!

There is no doubt that the kids have a blast and that is just great to see. Standing ovation all round.
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