Rocktopia
Broadway Theatre, NYC, March 25, 2018
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
If it’s your thing to marry two musical forms, say, Mozart, Puccini, and Stravinsky with Muse, Pink Floyd, and Styx, maybe Rocktopia is worth a try. Be aware, though: Rachmaninoff is not rock and, with two different species having nothing in common, this marriage is doomed to hit the rocks.
Created by Rob Evan and Randall Craig Fleischer, this concert production has toured widely and filmed a video, Live in Budapest. However, having them jam in a major Broadway theater is an ill-advised venture. Even with a 20-piece orchestra, 40-person chorus, five-piece electrifying rock band, and some talented vocalists who give their all—often too much—with energy and vocally high octane, prepare for a mash-up. The common themes come through without complement or emotion.
Staging is in constant motion, blasting light, ear-bursting sound, and Power Point projections. The Michael Stiller and Austin Switser projections come far short of illuminating what the music aims to communicate. Sometimes the images are unseemly, like the memorial slideshow with photos of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Buddy Holly—so far so good. But, adding Anne Frank, Mother Teresa, and Eleanor Roosevelt to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” (Freddy Mercury) is questionable.
The six vocalists, while qualified with potent voices, are encouraged to go further than just sing. They ham it up and go for all the stage presence they can. The gold medal here must go to Chloe Lowery, in her Broadway debut, who grasps for all the attention with mugging and over-blown melisma in Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” (Mick Jones). While there is no director listed, the music director, Tony Bruno, gyrates and plays guitar at the side of the stage. Grammy and Emmy nominee, Irish violinist Máiréad Nesbitt, is a stellar musician but can’t stand still—strutting, posing, and tossing her long blonde hair.
Enthusiastic co-creator/producer/tenor Rob Evan has appeared on Broadway (Jekyll & Hyde). In a pairing that might evoke commonality, Puccini’s “Quando m’en vo” (“Musetta’s Waltz”) features soprano Alyson Cambridge in her Broadway debut. This seductive aria, well-amplified, is paired with Evan bellowing out the Beatles’ gentle “Something” (George Harrison), where the only hint of honesty is the repetitive “…I don’t know.”
In her Broadway debut, Kimberly Nichole reveals an intriguing shading to her voice and has a fine delivery with Patti Smith’s hit “Because the Night” (Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen). She also joins the current featured star, Pat Monahan (through April 8), with Aerosmith’s timeworn “Dream On” (Steven Tyler). Monahan stands alone with poise, delivering clear lyrics and suitable microphone know-how, although he visibly strains for high notes in Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” (Jimmy Page/Robert Plant) and his signature hit “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” (Train/ Monahan). (Scheduled after Monahan, star guests will be Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider from April 9–15 and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander from April 23 to the final performance on April 29.)
Most of the time, brief classical snippets lead into a rock hit, but, occasionally, two rock groups are paired, like Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” (Roger Waters) and Muse’s “Uprising” (Matt Bellamy), in a rebellious rock anthem. Mozart’s sparkling Eine Kleine Nachtmusic fusing with the ballad/bombast of Styx’s “Come Sail Away” (Dennis DeYoung) makes musical noise, not musical sense. When Tony Vincent (American Idiot, TV’s The Voice) bellows the Hendrix hit “Purple Haze” after Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, this is a fit. Less informed is Vincent blaring out “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (Elton John/Bernie Taupin) paired with Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga.”
When Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is paired with Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,” Rob Evan takes on the Turandot tenor aria recognized as belonging to Luciano Pavarotti. Enough said. The other vocalists join with their own treatments, but the gaunt, leather-clad Tony Vincent seems clueless about either the aria or assaulting the Italian lyrics.
Rocktopia is a gimmicky two-and-a-half hour production guaranteed to please very few, although the performers do struggle to urge clap-alongs and arm-waving. To paraphrase Clemenza in The Godfather, “Leave the subtlety – take the amplifier” is the theme here. Or, as one kind theatergoer remarked, “It’s not bad enough to walk out, but not good enough to recommend.”
