Just as one likes to watch undead vampires behind the cultural bars of the musical, one also faces another inextinguishable bogeyman with comforting horror and a little distance: rock. To be more precise, the hair skirt, which begged for attention sometime in the 1980s with hairstyles like the mullet or even the men’s perm. Usually quite wild and misbehaving guys tried to justify the massive use of eye make-up and hairspray with very masculine leather clothing; the hardest had the biggest hits with the softest tearjerkers and tried how Foreigner Find out what love is: “I wanna know…”
And this is how it looked in the film: Tom Cruise in the film adaptation of “Rock of Ages” 2012 long-haired as Stacee Jaxx.
(Photo: David James/Warner Bros.)
Rock, hard rock, glam rock, cuddly rock and so on was of course huge at that time. From its subversive beginnings, rock had been turned into a cash cow by music managers in order to really cash in on radio listeners, record buyers and concert goers. Which is why he could later easily be exposed as overambitious and overrun by an anti-everything phenomenon like Grunge. After grunge, there were only two options for rock fans (and everyone was one after all): Either you were ashamed. Or you made fun of it. That’s why rock musicals exist. The best do a great job of mixing adoration and teasing (with the emphasis on homage, of course).
So now “Rock of Ages” is coming to the Deutsches Theater with a plot that strums along 25 “rock anthems and power ballads”: A provincial beauty comes to LA for fame and ends up as a waitress in a place threatened by the mayor’s wife Rock shed that a performance by the old star Stacee Jaxx is supposed to save.
To classify the musical: Def Leppardwho gave the piece its title with the song “Rock of Ages”, which strangely enough does not appear, are of course more authentic – and can be experienced in real life on Munich’s Königsplatz this summer, together with Motley Crewthe most self-destructive of the former hair gods (May 27). Steelpanther, the band-turned sex-rock satire, is more radical. The queen-Musical “We will Rock” is more bombastic and fantastic. “Rockville”, like “Rock of Ages”, has already been shown at the “Musical Sommer in Amstetten” and in the Deutsches Theater and, despite its provincial nature, scored with the nonchalant use of the F-word.
For intimate moments like these in the musical, even the toughest bands created rock ballads.
(Photo: The Other Richard)
So “Rock of Ages” remains the pound of hits: “The Final Countdown” by Europe“Here I Go Again” by white snake“Paradise City” by Guns’n Roses. More? “Rock You Like A Hurricane” (scorpion), “I Love Rock’n’Roll” (at least once a woman: Joan Jett), “Don’t Stop Believin” (Journey) … well, that’s enough for now. The stage play also gained notoriety through the Hollywood film adaptation of 2012: Tom Cruise was praised for his physical and vocal commitment in the role of the permanently intoxicated long mane Stacee Jaxx with Axl Rose bandana; However, the film flopped, perhaps because the fictional band documentary “Spinal Tap” was the ultimate rock satire.
The musical “Rock of Ages” premiered where author Chris D’Arienzo set it: in Los Angeles, the center of the entertainment industry in the 1980s. By the way, there Kyle Gass played the role of the owner of the rock bar, the comedian later made with the band together with colleague Jack Black Tenaciuos D Furore – one of the most honest rock jokes ever. The musical made its way to Broadway, where it ran forever and featured Dee Snider as bartender in his own twisted sister-singer “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.
Long live the rock: group scene from the musical “Rock of Ages”.
(Photo: The Other Richard)
In addition to a five-man band, the new production in Munich also features Everding Academy graduates Timothy Roller and Julian Taschler; also as rock star Sascha Lean, known to some TV through his band Lilian White and has been on “We Will Rock You” since 2007. The director is Alex Balga, who had spread rather softer tones at the Deutsches Theater with “Dirty Dancing”, but showed humor with his production of “Kein Pardon” and also breathed life into “Dracula” – a good basis.
“Rock of Ages”, April 4 to 16, Munich, Deutsches Theater, Mon.-Fri. 7.30 p.m., Sat. 3 p.m. & 7.30 p.m., Sun. 2.30 p.m. & 7 p.m