#MIKE WHITE SCHOOL OF ROCK SCRIPT HOW TO#
#MIKE WHITE SCHOOL OF ROCK SCRIPT SKIN#

She's snotty without being grating and smoothly makes the transition from gold-star-grubbing nemesis to ally. There's Ava Briglia as the no-it-all Summer who becomes 'manager' of the band Dewey forms called School of Rock. They're musical, they can move, and they're funny. Yes, they impress by being able to play their instruments as well as sing, but even more impressive is their skill as comic actors.

The show is suitably a vehicle for a star, and this production has a promising one in Colletti.Д¬olletti also has some winning co-stars in the remarkable young actors who play Dewey's students. Though I don't remember the film well enough to say how closely Colletti may have borrowed from Black's iconic performance, he seems to have made enough of it his own that it comes off as authentic and organic. Still, the character's belief in music and his basic kindness show through so that you root for him even as you laugh at him.

#MIKE WHITE SCHOOL OF ROCK SCRIPT HOW TO#

His Dewey is the perfect man-boy, deeply believing in rock and wanting to be a part of it, but clueless as to how to work with others and get through life as an adult with any sort of responsibility. Colletti, a product of Chicago's Columbia College and The Second City Training Center who has also covered the role of Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, lands all the verbal and physical laughs with skill. This national touring company, which opened in Rochester, New York, on September 30, 2017, has such a person in Chicagoan Rob Colletti. With the film a showcase for the unique persona of Jack Black, it must have been a huge challenge to find an adequate stage surrogate for Black. Lloyd Webber, in his roles as both producer and creator of this adaptation, wisely recognized that the point of all this is the comedy. You might also note a similarity to Phantom in its message of the redemptive power of music. Here, he's back to that earlier form, with not-so-heavy metal rock songs along with a few softer numbers you might find in other Lloyd Webber musicals. One might forget that, after Lloyd Webber's faux-operatic The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, and Aspects of Love, many of his earlier efforts, like Joseph, Starlight Express, and in its own way even Jesus Christ Superstar, were pop-y, unpretentious fun. And darned if this stage musical adaptation of the Jack Black film isn't funny.ДЄ Jack Black film isn't the first thing that might come to mind as source material for either an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical or an adaptation project for Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, but they both serve the material faithfully, and well. He is hardly a noble educatorВ—he's a loser living rent-free in the spare room of his best friend's apartment impersonating a teacher. Screenwriter/actor Mike White turned the formula around with his screenplay for School of Rock, the 2003 feature film that starred Jack Black as Dewey, a would-be rocker approaching middle age who impersonates his substitute teacher friend to make some badly needed cash. Schoolteachers who transform their students and make them believe in themselves are a sure bet for a good story.

Rob Colletti and the cast of School of Rock

#MIKE WHITE SCHOOL OF ROCK SCRIPT SKIN#

Also see John's reviews of Newsies and The Skin of Our Teeth

Mike white school of rock script