Rock of Ages: not just a small-town play

Photo: Martin Ogden

Whitworth Amateur Musical and Dramatic Society production, Rock of Ages

Whitworth Amateur Musical and Dramatic Society has been setting the stage alight at the Curtain Theatre with their latest production, Rock of Ages.

The show opened to an almost-full house, quickly capturing the audience’s attention with David Lee Roth’s Just Like Paradise.

By the finale, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, the entire audience offered a standing ovation.

The set is small, but it works. An interactive screen offers visuals for scene changes, and the costumes wouldn’t look out of place at any rock or metal bar.

Watch out for Starship’s We Built This City and REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling interpreted in a whole new light when sang as a duet.

Set against the backdrop of LA’s Sunset Strip, Rock of Ages tells of a classic boy-meets-girl love story.

Sherrie, a small town girl from Kansas with red cowboy boots, hopes to make it big as an actress, but lands herself a job at The Bourbon Room, where she meets aspiring rockstar, Drew, or Wolfgang Von Colt.

With 19 talented cast members performing, the 80s rock soundtrack will have you clapping and singing along to classics like Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Poison and Twisted Sister.

Def Leppard fans will appreciate the nod to their 1983 album Pyromania (from where Rock of Ages takes its name) during the fire safety procedure.

Rock of Ages is showing again at 7.30pm on Saturday (8 October).