Rock of Ages - Theatre Review
Rock of Ages Review - The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, Kent
We were thrilled to be invited to The Orchard Theatre’s press night, in Dartford last night, to see ‘Rock of Ages’ a fantastically, funny musical, which wasn’t something I was expecting to be as good as it turned out to be! It literally had us up on our feet and leaving the auditorium wanting to punch the air and change the world! – WE WALKED OUT OF THERE BUZZING!!!
So, ‘Rock of Ages’ is an 80’s, soft rock musical, not really suitable for kids, due to a few swear words and references to sexual activity, but a comical musical, with toe tapping tunes such as, ‘We Built This City’, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, ‘The Final Countdown’, ‘Here we Go Again’ and sooo many more, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard fans will be happy!
In a nutshell, it’s a story of ‘a small town girl’, leaving her home town to make a musical career, makes a couple of wrong choices, falls in love with a rock singing, sweetie (‘a city boy’) and saves the building that helped this love blossom and rock tunes flow! – Sounds basic?? You couldn’t be more wrong! The storyline is pretty much this, but the talent is UNREAL! ….
For a little while in the beginning, it was a little hard to keep up with the fast dialog and wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but then we suddenly got the gist and it all fell into place quite quickly. Despite this, the characters throughout were very entertaining, they were funny and incredibly talented. Their singing ability was just outstanding and the soft rock tunes had you up on your feet!
When you have incredible artists in such a fun show, as Rock of Ages is, it is NOT going to disappoint! The most outstanding performance was consistently from Jenny Fitzpatrick, who plays ‘Justice’ and turns out, played Tina in ‘The Tina Turner Musical’ in the West End, so this gives you an insight into the quality of this show, her voice was just ridiculously superb.
Luke Walsh & Rhiannon Chesterman played out a ‘will they, won’t they’ musical love story between their characters ‘Drew’ and ‘Sherrie’ again, both have incredible voices and played out the characters brilliantly.
Joe Gash, played ‘Lonny’ and was very funny, a very talented singer & performer who clearly channelled his inner Russell Brand and played the part extremely well.
Kevin Clifton played ‘Stacee Jaxx’, Well, who knew he had a voice too to add to his dancing feet talents! This man can act, sign and dance and do it well he did … a triple threat indeed!!
I have to say though, my favourite characters were ‘Regina’ & ‘Franz’ played by Gabriella Williams and Andrew Carthy. In my mind, their Geeky love story is going to live on! Think if ’Gunter’ from ‘Sing’ fell in love …. There’s a spin off right there!
If you love Theatre, if you love music, then ‘Rock of Ages’ is a must! - An incredible show with fabulous music, a night everyone will absolutely enjoy!
A massive thank you to The Orchard Theatre, for not only inviting us along, but for all the amazing shows you bring to our lovely County of Kent!
‘Rock of Ages’ is currently playing at The Orchard Theatre, in Dartford, Kent THIS WEEK ONLY, between Monday 25th – Saturday 30th October 2021. Very limited tickets are available and you can purchase them right now, by clicking right here!
Rock of Ages
Starring: Kevin Clifton, Luke Walsh, Rhiannon Chesterman, Ross Dawes, Joe Gash, Jenny Fitzpatrick, Gabriella Williams, Andrew Carty, Vas Constanti, Erin Bell, Adam Strong, Scott Hayward, Joshua Dever, Phoebe Samuel-Gray, Sam Turrell, Siobhan James, Janine Somcio & Morgan Scott.
