June - July 2009 Cover

June - July 2009 Cover

Last Updated on Monday, 01 June 2009 12:26 By Tim Sullivan Friday, 29 May 2009 21:16

My very soul has a mullet. I came of age in the 1980s in a town called Hillsdale in New Jersey. I bought turquoise zebra-striped spandex to wear with my studded belt and a Japanese lettered tank top to play my freshman year Battle of the Bands. Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister and Poison were all on our setlist. My world was MTV and I honestly believed that if I looked just right and used enough hair gel, the screaming girls in the Bon Jovi videos would scream for me. That mentality launched a thousand bands in 1987.

One town over from where I lived, in a village called Wyckoff, another shy, high school guy was learning the same cover songs, watching the same videos and striving for that same untouchable magic which we all felt in the big-haired ’80s. His name was Constantine Maroulis. While Los Angeles was a fertile crescent for the music scene in the ’80s, New Jersey and the New York area was ground zero, launching such icons as Bon Jovi, Skid Row and Mr. Big. When you are an adolescent, you have this sense that the world will always be as it is right at that moment. I truly felt that the music I was tuned into would never, ever wane in popularity. Things change.

I didn’t meet Constantine until 25 years later. He is now a Tony-nominated actor in the hilarious and musically genius Rock of Ages. Me? I wear a suit and carry a tape recorder for a living. He was a finalist on American Idol, gets to dress like it’s still 1987, and sing Twisted Sister songs. Me? Well, let’s just say all those hours spent learning Ritchie Sambora’s guitar parts never really paid off like I thought they would. My mullet is long gone; I’ve never even mentioned the spandex to anyone. However, I am one of those guys in the show’s audience that leaps to his feet to sing along to “Sister Christian.” But here is what’s important: Rock of Ages isn’t just some Broadway show, it’s the legitimization of an entire period of music full of beautiful complex melodies, which until now was ignored, satirized and ultimately shrugged off. For guys like me and Constantine, it is our time again.

“This is the soundtrack to my life,” said Constantine. “It’s a wonderful era in music – especially for an actor that is also a singer. The imagery, the celebration of rock, the over-the-top videos and fashion - everything was such an inspiration to me as a kid. When you grow up with a void and you are into rock ‘n’ roll and you see stuff like that, it’s all you want to do – “I Wanna Rock” – that’s it. When I heard Twisted Sister and I saw that video, it’s all I ever wanted to do. I grew up with Bon Jovi and they were my heroes, especially growing up in New Jersey.”

There is finally something on Broadway for guys like me. As the world stands with a slacked-jawed gaze at the spectacular popularity of Rock of Ages – with its glitter-clad portfolio of 1980s hair metal music – guys like me are standing tall and saluting something that to us is a vibrant cultural renaissance. People used to trivialize the music of Whitesnake, Twisted Sister and Poison. Looking at old pictures of myself and the album covers, I understand why. The simple fact was that in the multimedia and marketing that overwhelmed the era, the real merit and stunning beauty of these songs was obscured by the ridiculous outfits, ostentatious stage presentation and overall sophomoric branding by the then-relevant major record labels. Unfortunately, this was our “culture’s” accepted memory of an entire era – that is, until Rock of Ages opened. Now once again … things have changed.

The premise for the musical is insultingly simple: a metal bar on the Sunset Strip is closing and with it will come an enormous shift in the musical landscape. There is a thinly veiled boy-meets-girl love story of Drew and Sherrie, which upon closer inspection is a spot-on depiction of anyone who fell in love against the backdrop of that time. Actual music from the period is intertwined into the dialogue and songs are blended in the tradition of Moulin Rouge, Across the Universe or Mamma Mia. But the main difference is that this music has never been given its due until now.

Amy Spanger plays the gorgeous Sherrie, a starry-eyed Hollywood hopeful and Drew’s love interest. Her character is, of course, the platform for Steve Perry’s bombastic solo hit “Oh Sherrie” to be weaved into the second act. She is diverted and corrupted by Stacee Jaxx, archetypical lead singer of Arsenal – the faux chart-topping band whose last gig at the bar is the metaphor for the closing of an age. The cast lets you laugh all you want because the writers shrewdly know that cliché always holds its charm – especially when it’s nostalgia served up as hyperbole. I asked Maroulis how close the character of Drew was to the real Constantine circa 1987. “He is about 10 years older, but pretty close – I was a shy kid,” he reflected. “I like to think Drew came from a big family with lots of sisters which is why he is so sweet and vulnerable and accepting of Sherrie’s betrayals. I grew up working in bars and rock clubs in New York, working in bands before the whole Idol experience and like Drew, I am a pretty nice guy at the end of the day.”

Everything about this theatrical excursion is unconventional and utterly delightful. Drinks are served in your seat to create the ambience of a traditional rock club. Period costumed hotties in the chorus strike stripper poses, immediately transporting the audience into a Motley Crue video. David Coverdale of Whitesnake, an icon of the age, greets the audience in a voiceover opening as the lights dim and bang! The world outside simply doesn’t exist for the next two-and-a-half hours.

It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t had the time of their life at this musical. The phenomenon is well chronicled – people can’t resist singing along with the cast to songs they were told they’d be embarrassed they love. Guys in suits caught in the ticking traps of corporate cubicle hell are suddenly time warped back to their freshman year of high school and are standing up and singing. Fists are pumping in the air. Ties get loosened. Collectively the audience feels young again. Real magic is happening. Magic that guys like me haven’t felt since, well … 1985? Many of the rave reviews the show has received celebrate the theatrical spectacle and backhandedly describe a “guilty pleasure” aura. I think that’s too simplistic and narrow a view. For guys like me it runs a lot deeper … down deep in our soul where the mullet still gets combed.

The blending of the songs is simply spectacular. Signature ballads of the era such as Damn Yankees’ “Higher” and Warrant’s “Heaven” re-emerge from mass media obscurity and are presented so beautifully that you wonder how anyone couldn’t love this music. Rocking up-tempo numbers such as Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock,” Joan Jett’s “Hate Myself For Loving You” and the huge first act closer – Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” – are expertly choreographed with the entire company gyrating. The response from the audience, night after night, is a full-on assault of enthusiastic adrenaline that only genuine nostalgia can tap into. Forgetting this music would be a crime against humanity.

On opening night I sat a few rows in front of Dee Snyder and JJ French of Twisted Sister. Jim Petrick of Survivor was a few rows in front of me and members of Night Ranger were to my right. These legends all have pieces featured in the show. A few weeks later, I had the privilege of meeting with Tommy Shaw of Styx and Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon before the show where I told Tommy I never thought I would see someone hit his stratospheric high notes in the Damn Yankees song “Higher.” He just smiled his trademark Alabama grin and said that the cast does it beautifully. I then sat wide-eyed when after the show they jumped up during the encore to blast into a new single they had written. Why? Because for these musical giants and guys like me, the magic never went anywhere – it’s still as strong as it was 25 years ago. That feeling of being 15 and practicing these songs for the Battle of the Bands returns in full swing and for a moment you are back in touch with that elusive spiritual magic only a laser light and hairspray can conjure. You feel connected. You are understood, if only briefly.

Rock of Ages is the most entertaining and creative way imaginable to share that with the world, since it’s very hard to define unless you lived it. But there is something for everyone in this musical. Younger and older generations who never saw a Poison video will still have the time of their lives. When it’s pure and it’s authentic, this catalog of music will always hold its ground and deliver. And as Maroulis and the spectacular cast rip down the roof with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin!” as the huge show closer, you realize guys like us never did stop believing in the power of the music this decade brought us … and thanks to Rock of Ages, we’ll never have to.

Going With Your Gut

By Tim Sullivan

Sometimes the best decisions defy any conventional wisdom. The return on investment is ambiguous. The market for the product isn’t clear. The uphill battle to reach your vision is, well, pretty far uphill. But then there is that little voice that you can’t escape that just says, “Do it!”

That’s what happened on a drive to Vermont a few years ago. Someone handed Jeff Davis a script for a play filled with music he had never heard. The music was hard rock from the ’80s and was easily 25 years out of date. It was no mystery why the authors were having trouble finding backers and producers for Rock of Ages. The music of Poison isn’t exactly Broadway-ready. Hell, people won’t even admit it’s on their iPods!

But Jeff watched his sons’ reaction to the music – they were much younger than the generation that grew up on it but they loved every song. He knows magic when he sees it and the gears started turning. Whoever wanted to bring this show to life must have had a vision as well. Put the magic with the vision and people will always amaze you.

“I like to invest in people, not things,” explains Jeff. “Money isn’t enough. You have to believe in the people you are investing in and they have to know that you believe in them.”

Rock of Ages was a risk. It had even closed in two cities prior to opening off Broadway in New York in the fall. But Davis, a lifelong entrepreneur across many industry sectors, did what he always did – he listened to his gut and went full steam ahead as a producer.

In seeking corroboration for these appallingly uncomplicated principles, another “people investment” of Jeff’s provided perspective: none other than the writer of the critically acclaimed musical Brooklyn – Mark Schoenfeld – who is bringing another theatrical production to life with Davis as a producer. Schoenfeld describes a loyalty and emotional investment uncommon to anything he has experienced in almost 40 years in show business. He also tells of a hands-off manager who doesn’t interfere with peoples’ work, but simply makes suggestions and maintains his faith in those people.

The loyalty, the emotional investment, the faith in writers and directors, the feeling in one’s gut that outdated and ridiculous music never tried on Broadway would draw an audience – those are the qualities this producer relied on in bringing Rock of Ages to life. It has led to five Tony nominations, so Davis must know what he is doing on some level.