School of Rock The Musical - November 2023

Based on the iconic hit movie film, this irrestible musical follows Dewey Finn, a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn extra cash by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school.

There he turns a class of straight-A students into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock band. But can he get them to the Battle of the Bands without their parents and the school’s headmistress finding out?Featuring 14 new songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and all the original songs from the movie, this high-octane smash hit delivers face-melting guitar riffs and touching romance in equally awesome doses!

Shrewsbury Musical Theatre Company is thrilled rounded off its centenary year with the Shropshire premiere of this fantastic show which was extremely well received by its audiences!

Based on the paramount movie written by Mike White, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, book by Julian Fellowes and lyrics by Glenn Slater, this is an amateur performance by arrangement with The Really Useful Group Ltd.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS

A truly phenomenal show with so much talent on display! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

It was EPIC

Me and my Son both loved it, you were awesome!

My daughter and I absolutely loved it, well done to everyone involved - you put on a brilliant show and should be very proud.

Well done to all, brilliant show, West End next......

This show was totally awesome!

Fantastic show. You guys are amazing, well done.

All the cast could be stars of the West End

Congratulations to all. The show was fabulous and everyone was amazing, especially the children, this coming from someone whom didn't particularly like the film!

Everyone was brilliant!

Absolutely fantastic production! Buzzing....

Impressive, unforgettable and simply fascinating!

Review from Love Shrewsbury's Sophia Lewis

Some of you may remember the last article or review I did on an amateur performance I remarked that I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t a fully professional show. I am happy to say I found myself faced with the same thought again. I thought perhaps that a talent train had derailed, and the occupants had all headed to Theatre Severn to make their presence in the town known. Imagine my amazement and delight when yet again I was faced by the fact that these talented performers aged from around 12 to about 55 (Guesswork) were Shrewsbury’s own talent and my how they made the place rock.

The story is simple Teacher who is not a teacher goes and teaches a class of children and turns them into a great rock band and through that, each child is sent on a voyage of discovery about themselves and their own values. Good wholesome stuff and even simplified to that one-line synopsis one can see this was a great show. A show that had had so much work put in, that it could really only produce gold: And gold it was.

The principal musicians in this kid’s rock band, “The School Of Rock,” were the drummer, bassist, guitarist, percussion and keys. One was delighted to see the music was being played by the children themselves and not only could they act but my how they could play. Disbelief suspending greatness. The whole narrative was so unlikely that the audience really went with it with a whisper of if only…. The show offered fun in a wholly believable but highly infeasible way. In reality this ne’er do well teacher, would have been weeded out by Ofsted and sent down the road. Well one would like to hope so, but that wouldn’t have suited this fun show because the moral seemed to be that learning and education can come from so many fields. Schools are getting the message nowadays but there’s still a long way to go before solid heavy metal makes it into the year 7’s curriculum.

This is a great show, the children shine so, they have worked hard, they have worked professionally and tonight they earned their corn. Their place on the stage, whatever their role, was the right casting. It was a great fun show.

Obviously, its tough for the cast to have such a partisan audience of friends and relations sitting watching you. Well, there will have been many proud friends and relations tonight. It’s not fair to single out individuals for their star performances as each one of the players were great and there were too many. However the little girl who played Summer is my tip for the top. She has talent in spades. But so did the others. That’s why I am only tipping one for the top but  each of them can be or do whatever they want to  with confidence instilled in them from their taking part in this show.

The seven piece band in the orchestra pit were so good but I was a little concerned with the overall sound however, competing over a live band is not easy and sometimes the balance of the volume was wrong, and children were not heard or their sound cue was missed and the mic was switched on after they had started speaking. That’s not a problem if fixed, after all it is first night and gremlins appear. The sound for this reviewer was the gremlin and mis-cues and imbalances of sound have to tightened up, and each cue needs to be hit bang on the money. I know it will be and I understand it is a huge job they do in the box, there would be no show without them, but if the box isn’t matching the show then there can be trouble. It wasn’t a huge issue just a niggle; but that tomorrow will be ironed out one imagines, and that will then make a great show just about perfect.

If this reviewer had a pound every time, I said that I can’t believe this is home talent; I would be a rich woman. But what does that really say? It says Shrewsbury has a wealth of singers, musicians, actors, and dancers. They need the platform to show us what they can do. Tonight, Shrewsbury Musical Theatre Co. gave them that very platform and my how they shone.

This fun show is in all week, with a matinee on Saturday. Have you booked yet? No? You could do worse for a night out that’s for sure and to be honest you’d be struggling to do better. A good show, talented cast, talented direction, music co-ordination and choreography all great. Design showed thought as did the costumes. A lot of work equals one solidly good show. Kids as the show suggested, you “Stuck it to the Man” well done.

This is a Four-Star Review.

Sofia Lewis

Wed, 15/11/2023 - 23:00

GALLERY