This week the Granite city has been rumbling due to the face-melting rock coming from Treading The Board’s production of ‘Rock of Ages’ playing Aberdeen Arts Centre till Saturday 10th February. This 80s-based love story about wannabe rocker Drew Boley and aspiring actress Sherrie Christian facing LA’s highs and lows has been an audience pleaser since debuting in Los Angeles back in 2005.
Ethan Lumsden takes on Drew Boley in this production. The humour is much more present within this portrayal of the character, making him open and accessible to the audience, which helps Drew’s struggles resonate with ease. Ethan provides powerhouse vocals, especially tackling numbers such as ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, you easily believe that Drew is a rocker with the pipes Ethan gives him. Megan Cruickshank’s Sherrie Christian delivers on all accounts, with a sweet, caring and at points, fierce demeanour. Couple that with excellent tackling of the complex choreo and stupendous vocals, you can’t help but love this young girl trying to discover herself on the Sunset Strip.
Josh Milne is instantly identifiable as Lonny with his wit, sleaze, and bucketloads of energy. To say he’s an audience pleaser is an understatement, the crowd goes wild for Josh’s quick humour and interactions, as should be expected from a good portrayal of the hilarious narrator. Kyle Anderson compliments Milne’s Lonny bringing a hilarious, unfiltered, and farcical Dennis Dupree, which is in my opinion the best interpretation of the character I’ve seen. These two are comedic gold in this production.
Jordan Lee brings edge and hypnotic energy as Stacee Jaxx. Jordan’s vocals are stunning and suit this character very well. He also brings the sleaze and seedy nature of the character to stage perfectly. This is a fun supporting role.
Rebecca Morrice brings us a powerful and more maternal version of Justice Charlier, where we see her protection of the girls being stronger than other productions. With this her vocals during numbers such as ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ are incredible and compliment the character even further.
Aidan Colquhoun is hysterical as Franz Kilneman, the quirky and camp nature Aidan delivers is just hilarious. With this his performance of ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ is the closest thing to a showstopper in the musical. That paired with his relationship with Sarah Smith’s cookie and equally as comedic Regina, it’s a champagne duo.
Liam Talt rinses the comedy material provided for Hertz Klineman, the vicious businessman. With that being said, the more villainous dialogue could be amped up to bring further tension and presence for the main antagonist in this musical. However, nonetheless, this is a great performance from Liam.
The ensemble in this show are outstanding, they bring such energy to all the scenes they are included in and do well to tackle the tricky choreo with energy and nail the almost unreachable vocals needed for this musical. The Bourbon Room ensemble; Lawrie Gibb, Ellie Yeats, Luke Florence, Mikey Smith, Maya Edgerley, Benjamin Gibbs, Jade Thomas, Logan McKerron & Melissa Graham. The Venus Club ensemble; Mgean Love, Molly Cowan, Sophia Park, Jennifer Lypka, Grace Hepburn, Hollie Cunningham, Isla Mooney, Rachel Allan Molotnikov & Ciara Christie. The Sunset Strip ensemble; Andy Stuart, Sophie Morrice, Joshua Horsfall, Anna ross, Roan Buckham, Eilidh Spencer, Laura Dow, Stuart Massie & Robyn Smith.
Hannah Cook’s direction of ‘Rock of Ages’ (with assistant direction from Erin Chalmers) updates the musical to bring more edge, more seedy antics, and wrings the humour from the text. This is a colourful and raucous production that really does rock the hell out of the Aberdeen Arts Centre. One slight critique would be that some scenes need to slow down to let the dust settle for some of the dramatic moments of the text. This is an ambitious production for a professional theatre company let alone a student society, therefore the execution here is something that should be applauded. Kat Officer’s choreography lifts each musical number and brings so much energy to the stage, truly making each rockin’ hit a spectacle. Kenneth Lypka and Mikey Innes’ musical direction blows the face off the audience, making all of these legendary rock hits sound superb. That being said, some dialogue does get drowned out by how loud the music is, this was the first night therefore this may have been corrected by now. Nonetheless, the tackling of the music by these musical directors and their band is very impressive.
‘Rock of Ages’ has returned to Aberdeen in style with Treading The Boards, which shows the sheer talent of the local student community. This is a fun, heart-warming, loud and hilarious production that audiences will love.
Get your tickets here – https://www.aberdeenartscentre.com/whats-on/rock-of-ages?fbclid=IwAR0ytpg2SsJHjFh8rJMjmdP9Kx4wlWYH4fsBV2PKfrKBEUM0fY8Aqc_aYM0
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