'Rock Tenor': Flash, pomp, and maximum music
It all begins with a few stark lines of "Hey Jude" before the keyboards come in with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." Then, it's on (and on and on and on, as that song says) to the Stones' "Satisfaction," now with guitars added. And this is just the first 60 seconds of The Rock Tenor, a world-premiere theatrical concert settling into the Wilma Theater for more than a month. It brings fresh meaning to the old word medley.
It all begins with a few stark lines of "Hey Jude" before the keyboards come in with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." Then, it's on (and on and on and on, as that song says) to the Stones' "Satisfaction," now with guitars added. And this is just the first 60 seconds of
The Rock Tenor
, a world-premiere theatrical concert settling into the Wilma Theater for more than a month. It brings fresh meaning to the old word
medley
.
These are not your grandma's medleys, unless grandma is an unlikely under-40. These are what people are calling popera - neither quite opera nor quite pop, but a mixture of both, plus Broadway, classical, country, you name it.
In fact, The Rock Tenor is lots of mixtures. There's flash, showroom sizzle, arena pomp, and a heap of old-fashioned showbiz charm. One minute, it's the opening of Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra with appropriately ominous lighting; the next, it's a hoedown in come-hither knee-high leather boots and six-inch spikes.
Attention, all Purists: Take a hike. When the plugged-in cast members - five strong singers who also can play instruments, two gifted women on strings, two keyboardists, two guitarists, and a drummer - play the classics, they won't make them sound like the Fabulous Philadelphians, and the opera snippets won't come sung as operatic lines. That's part of the mash-up that makes The Rock Tenor rock. Puccini's aria "Nessun dorma" is not necessarily Nessunesque. You could swear it was scored by Kurt Weill - then, a minute later, by Led Zeppelin.
The idea is that music by any name, composer, or orchestrator is music - here, with unabashed big-production passion and, when the cast sings pieces in full, intensity. Come to think of it, all the performances in The Rock Tenor are intense, either from the beginning or in the buildup. The show is about stage presence as much as anything, one giant production number, a jukebox musical whose only script is that the jukebox exists.
The Rock Tenor proposes to offer "probably the most eclectic set of music in store for you that you can imagine - the only thing I hope is, you keep wondering what's next," the lead singer, Rob Evan, told the audience - and that was the extent of the script.
The rest of the communication comes in lyrics, delivery, the looks on the singers' faces, the orchestrations and the stagecraft: Herrick Goldman's high-wattage lighting and Nick Kourtides' crisp sound design, which I wish someone across the street at the Academy of Music would reproduce.
Vincent Marini, the former head of the Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center in Marlton, N.J., directs the show for maximum wow - these numbers elicit whoops the second the last note drops. Marini, just named executive director of the professional Flat Rock Playhouse, also called the state theater of North Carolina, assembled a cast made up partly of members of another show he'd produced.
Evan, who at times resembles a svelter Meat Loaf (he provides one of the show's best covers), is a clear-voiced performer who's played Jean Valjean on Broadway in Les Miserables and sings lead for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The seductive Morgan James, recently cast in Broadway's forthcoming The Addams Family, has a wide range and a voice that goes from smoky to sweet for a few show-stoppers. Alex Keiper, a recent University of the Arts grad with several theatrical credits in town, is the other clear female voice. On the guy side, Aaron Lavigne and Dustin Brayley complete the vocal contingent. Together, the five are a powerhouse.
Susan Aquila and Betsy Goode play a variety of plugged-in string instruments, and make up their own musical subplot of The Rock Tenor. If the show's theme is that music's form needn't matter, it's mirrored in Aquila's professional life. A Juilliard-trained violinist, she's at home here in hot pants and with a bangin' assortment of wired strings. But you also can find her in Broadway orchestras, White House chamber concerts, and at New York City's Bitter End club.
Music is indeed the food of this crew's love, and its members sample from many plates.
The Rock Tenor
Presented by JV Theatricals at the Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., through August 23. Tickets: $25-$40. Information: 215-546-7824 or www.therocktenor.com. EndText