"Rock of Ages" - by Chris D’Arienz - North Shore Music Theatre (Beverly, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: The CAST of the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
"Sometimes the dreams you come in with may not be the dreams you're leaving with - but, hey...they still rock!"
- ("Lonnie") / Chris D’Arienzo
North Shore Music Theatre
Presents the Musical
"ROCK OF AGES"
Book by Chris D’Arienzo
Directed by Kevin P. Hill
Music Director Peter Leigh-Nilson
Choreographer Sara Andreas
Cast Includes: Matt DaSilva* as “Lonny,” Toneisha Harris as “Justice/Mother,” Evan Harrington* as “Dennis,” EJ Dohring* as “Drew,” Chelsea Williams* as “Sherrie,” Lily Kaufmann* as “Regina,” Kristopher Stanley Ward* as “Mayor/Ja’Keith” Tom Galantich* as “Hertz,” Michael Schimmele* as “Franz,” Nathaniel Hackmann* as “Father/Stacee Jaxx,” Milena J. Comeau* as “Waitress # 1,” Kevin Raponey* as “DJ,” Evan Owen as “Producer/Joey Primo,” Ellie Chancellor as “Constance,” Greta Cardoza as “Young Groupie.”
Ensemble: Bryndal Braithwaite, Greta Cardoza, Tony Carrubba, Ellie Chancellor, Milena J. Comeau*, Audrey Curdo, Kyle Estrada, Joshua Griffin, Juan Camilo Laverde, Julian Mendoza*, Meadow Nguy*, Celina Nightengale*, Evan Owen, Kevin Raponey*, Kristopher Stanley Ward*.
Understudies, Study Covers & Swings
Understudies, Study Covers, And Swings Are Never Substituted For Listed Performers Unless A Specific Announcement Is Made At The Time Of The Performance.
Understudy For: Lonny, Dennis, & Hertz - Kevin Raponey*; Drew & Stacee Jaxx/ Father - Julian Mendoza*; Justice/ Mother - Celina Nightengale*; Regina - Meadow Nguy*.
Study Covers For: Sherrie - Bryndal Braithwaite; Franz & Joey Primo - Tony Carrubba; Mayor/ Ja’Keith - Joshua Griffin.
Swings: Audrey Curdo, Juan Camilo Laverde
Additional Creative Team:
Assistant Music Director and Rehearsal Pianist - Robert L. Rucinski; Scenic Design - Jeffrey Kmiec; Lighting Design - Jose Santiago; Sound Design - Ryan Marsh; Costume Coordinator - Rebecca Glick; Owner and Producer - Bill Hanney; Producing Artistic Director - Kevin P. Hill; Associate Producer and Casting Director - Matthew Chappell; Dance Captain - Milena J. Comeau*; Additional Pole Choreography - Meadow Nguy*; Production Stage Manager - Marshall Lee Smith, Jr.*;Assistant Stage Managers - Kyra Meagher*, Maria Papadopoulos*.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Performances:
August 12, 2026 through August 23, 2026
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
TICKETS:
For tickets and information visit www.nsmt.org, call # 978-232-7200, or visit the North Shore Music Theatre box office in person at 54 Dunham Road, Beverly, MA. 01915
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review contains spoilers)
Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) burns it up and goes for broke with "ROCK OF AGES" with songs from some of the biggest acts of the 1980s.
This is an absurdist comedy wrapped up nicely with a bow using great tunes, all performed with a look and feel of some of the most memorable female-objectifying music videos of the 1980s. More on that in a moment.
Written by Chris D’Arienzo, the power-pop mash-up musical has a paper-thin plot that shoehorns in songs from 80s icons and supergroups REO Speedwagon, Styx, Foreigner, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison among others.
The NSMT show, performed in-the-round and using an incredibly intricate set design, features original arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp.
However, the actual title song "ROCK OF AGES" by Def Leppard never is heard in the musical because the show was refused to be granted the license.
And yet, occasionally one might hear the song played at a performance during or after curtain call as exit music.
The absolute best thing about the D’Arienzo script is in how it does not take itself seriously, often calling attention to its own ridiculous plot and sub-plots through fourth wall interactions with the audience.
Eluding much praise by critics when the show premiered on Broadway in 2009, that didn’t stop audiences from making it one of the longest running shows in Broadway history, achieving a total of 2,328 performances before ending its run in 2015.
The show also was nominated for five Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical.
This is a far cry from the abysmal 2012 film with an all-star cast that included Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough, which took itself far too seriously and ultimately lost money.
Since becoming available, the show has performed well in regional or community theatres, promoted mostly as a fun, “you’re your mind off” kind of a show and the NSMT cast and creative team continue in that tradition.
Part of the reason for this appeal comes from the NSMT cast keeping the audience completely engaged, totally involved in the preposterous goings on in what can loosely be described as a “story,” helping to keep the overall feeling light.
For those of us of a “certain age,” we recognize the story is simply a strategic marketing ploy to appeal to our generation by placing all these songs that we grew up with into one, innocuous, ultimately forgettable story.
Yet, since debuting in 2009, "ROCK OF AGES" has proven to be a huge success with audiences in the United States and audiences around the world.
And yes - you WILL hear Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" by the time you get to the show's finale (so, don't head for the parking lot too early or you'll miss out).
Jukebox musicals are considered by most theatre snobs as a “lesser form” of Broadway musicals, even though the sub-genre tends to do quite well IF the stories are appealing enough.
The better jukebox shows are the ones more biographical in nature, like Gloria Estefan’s “ON YOUR FEET” brilliantly executed earlier this season by NSMT.
Musicals using a thinly veiled plot to tie together multiple songs by the same artist, like “MAMMA MIA” or “ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE” (ABBA and Jimmy Buffett, respectively) tend to appeal to the artist’s fan base more so than traditional theatre going audiences.
Helping to usher in an era of a new sub-sub-genre, "ROCK OF AGES" - and its mishmash of random songs - has since been followed by other similar musicals, including “Moulin Rouge” and “& Juliet.”
When discussing the most egregious examples of the sub-sub-genre, many critics do tend to point to "ROCK OF AGES."
But you know what?
Audiences don’t care, just so long as they hear the songs they love performed well…and they are absolutely performed well here by the NSMT cast, supporting ensemble and orchestra.
Under the stalwart guidance of NSMT director Kevin P. Hill, with music direction by Peter Leigh-Nilson and choreography by Sara Andreas, this is a fun, self-parodying show, and that is its most endearing quality as the story (such as it is) unfolds.
The show is designed to give us a sense of what life might have been like in Hollywood in the mid-1980s.
However, having lived and worked there in 1987, I spent a lot of time along the Sunset Strip and, if there were women dressed as we see in "ROCK OF AGES," wearing only Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie, fishnets and leather jackets, I must not have been going to the right clubs.
While the NSMT"glam band" costume plot seems to be designed to show us scantily clad women as one might recall in Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” or Mötley Crüe’s “Girls Girls Girls” videos, the approach does not serve merely to provide us with thrills and frills.
Through intelligently combined costuming and choreography, this brave ensemble of actresses unapologetically executes material which shines a light imposingly on just how much women were objectified during this time.
And make no mistake – to recall what one might have witnessed in those archaic music videos, the NSMT choreography applied here by Andreas is occasionally rude, crude and lude – but always fabulous.
Additional praise extended to the pole dancing choreography by Meadow Nguy, especially as used during several songs in the show’s second act.
That said, there may be moments where some might feel uncomfortable with or even triggered by the overt sexual content contained within the NSMT show and should take this into consideration before attending.
(Photo: EJ Dohring as “Drew” with Chelsea Williams as “Sherrie” in a scene from the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
The musical launches with just a taste of Twisted Sister’s “Cum On Feel the Noize” as we meet Lonny Barnett (Matt DaSilva), who serves as our irreverent guide for the evening.
DaSilva is hilarious, completely invested in the amiable Lonny character as he propels us through the saga set in 1987 Los Angeles, specifically along the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
Lonny works with aspiring rocker Drew (EJ Dohring), a busboy in the “Bourbon Room,” which is a Hollywood club owned by Dennis Dupree (Evan Harrington).
Dohring is an exceptionally gifted vocalist who presents Drew as a kind, gentle soul, trying to make it in a world of headbanging rock and roll where kind, gentle souls tend to get eaten as breakfast.
Harrington as Dennis is convincing and delightful as serving as the story’s seasoned veteran rocker and business owner, just trying to scrape by financially.
With undeniable chemistry as Dennis and Lonny, Harrington's scenes and interactions with DaSilva are among the funniest moments in the show.
After a mash-up of David Lee Roth’s “Just Like Paradise” and Poison’s “Nothin' But a Good Time," we watch as Drew falls head over heels for Sherrie Christian (Chelsea Williams), just arrived from smalltown Kansas and hoping to make it big as an actress.
Drew convinces Dennis to hire Sherrie as a waitress and yes - you will get to hear “Oh, Sherrie” by Steve Perry and the Night Ranger classic "Sister Christian" otherwise what would be the point of naming her “Sherrie Christian?”
Williams is charming as Sherrie, and has many moments to shine vocally, especially in her second act duet with Dohring on Damn Yankee’s “High Enough,” probably the only song in the show that surprisingly works on its own theatrically without feeling forced.
(Photo: The CAST of the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
During an odd arrangement of the Starship number "We Built This City," we watch as City Planner Regina (Lily Kaufmann) goes up against German business developer Hertz Klinemann (Tom Galantich) and son Franz (Michael Schimmele), who convince the city's mayor to do away with the permissiveness running rampant along the Sunset Strip.
There is a surprising sub-plot involving Regina (pronounced “rej-eye-na” because, of course, why not?) and Franz as they begin as adversaries but slowly drift toward each other in defiance of Hertz.
All three NSMT actors give commendable performances in trying to make the silly sub-plot work…and hilariously succeed.
Dennis learns that the developers plan to take the wrecking ball to his beloved Bourbon Room.
So, of course, in a last-ditch effort to save his bar, he decides to throw a benefit concert starring rock star Stacee Jaxx (Nathaniel Hackmann) who got his first big break at the Bourbon Room, all to the tune of Styx’s "Too Much Time on My Hands."
Meanwhile, as lyricist Drew faces writer’s block, Sherrie urges him to go after his dreams to which he responds in another Twisted Sister song "I Wanna Rock” which is overlapped as Regina protests Hertz and Franz's redevelopment plans to another Twisted Sister classic "We're Not Gonna Take It.”
Sherrie and Drew seem to be falling for one another just as the tentacles of outside influences begin to reach in and pull their budding romance apart.
In the Foreigner number "I Want to Know What Love Is" we watch as Sherrie falls under the spell of Stacee Jaxx just before his reunion with Arsenal.
Hackmann is hilarious as the reprehensible drug-addict rock star, bearing a striking resemblance to Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses.
After Sherrie innocently reveals Jaxx’s “shortcomings” to another waitress, Jaxx gets her fired and, in a stupor, his reunion with Arsenal collapses before it even gets underway.
(Photo: Nathaniel Hackmann as “Stacee Jaxx” with members of the CAST of the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
In a “Star is Born” lift, we watch as record producer, Ja'Keith Gill (Kristopher Stanley Ward), so impressed by Drew's performance after the Arsenal debacle, signs Drew to a contract.
One star falls as one star rises, and is complicated by Sherrie’s tryst with Stacee, with Drew turning his back on her via another Twisted Sister song, "Cum on Feel the Noize."
To the tune of Quarterflash’s “Harden My Heart,” the broken-hearted and unemployed Sherrie becomes an exotic dancer for Justice Charlier (Toneisha Harris), owner of strip-joint the “Venus Club” leading into Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night.”
Harris is a dominating presence with a stunning voice and we anxiously await her return to the story time and time again.
The show’s "Achilles' Heel" is in how the lyrics rarely lend themselves to the plot.
While some mash-ups work better than others, the Joan Jett “I Hate Myself for Loving You” mash-up with Asia’s “Heat of the Moment” in a strip club setting is quite possibly the biggest head-scratching moment in the entire musical.
By the end of the first act of "ROCK OF AGES," we are left with many questions - most of which we already know the answers:
- Will Drew find fame and fortune as a rock star?
- Will Sherrie rise above her situation?
- Will Drew and Sherrie find their way back?
- Will Dennis and his club (both) survive the wrecking ball?
- Will Jaxx find either a conscience or sobriety...and will he know what to do with either if he does?
- Will the native “wild life” of the Sunset Strip ultimately be saved?
(Photo: The CAST of the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
By the end of the second act, which features even more memorable tunes, the enormity of clichéd dialogue and scenarios put to music in this show is overwhelming even, at times, exhausting.
If the script for "ROCK OF AGES" didn't call attention to itself by pointing out just how outlandish it is, this might be seen as an incredibly insulting show.
However, thankfully, it does - and that approach is enhanced by the fine NSMT performances that elevate the rudimentary material.
Within a few moments, you just find you don’t care how inane the plot is nor how one-dimensional these characters may appear.
All you care about with NSMT's "ROCK OF AGES" is hearing these great tunes executed by a phenomenal cast and orchestra, with some exciting dances all performed in-the-round with great intensity.
(Photo: The CAST of the musical "ROCK OF AGES" now playing at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA. through August 23, 2026. Photo Credit: Paul Lyden)
The radical "ROCK OF AGES" continues at Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly until August 23rd, 2026, so feel it, don't fight it, go with the flow and just enjoy watching this talented cast as they keep a'rollin' in this amazing NSMT show.
Up next for Bill Hanney's North Shore Music Theatre will be the Broadway juggernaut musical "COME FROM AWAY" by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, which will begin September 16th and run until September 27th, 2026.
For tickets and information visit www.nsmt.org, call # 978-232-7200, or visit the North Shore Music Theatre box office in person at 54 Dunham Road, Beverly, MA. 01915.
BUY TICKETS
Approximately two hours, 20 minutes with one intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
Set in 1987 on Hollywood’s infamous Sunset Strip, "ROCK OF AGES" tells the story of Drew, a boy from South Detroit, and Sherrie, a small-town girl chasing her dreams of stardom.
When their paths collide at the legendary Bourbon Room, sparks fly, but their love and ambitions are tested as the Strip faces destruction from greedy developers determined to silence the music.
Bursting with heart, humor, and pure rock ‘n’ roll energy, this high-octane musical features the iconic hits of Bon Jovi, Journey, Foreigner, Poison and more. "ROCK OF AGES" is a larger-than-life celebration of love, music, and the wild spirit of the 1980s that will have audiences singing along and ready to rock all night!
Approximately two hours, 20 minutes with one intermission
CONTENT ADVISORY: Production has strobing and flashing lights, Stage fog and theatrical haze.
This show contains adult language, alcohol use, smoking, recreational drug use, suggestive sexual situations, violence, mention of a suicide attempt.
Recommended for late teens and adult audiences.
We do encourage you to use your judgment based on your own research of the show, your own sensibilities, and a child's age and maturity level.
No children under the age of 4 will be permitted in the theatre including babes in arms.
ABOUT BILL HANNEY'S NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE
Since opening in 1955, NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE (NSMT) has become one of the most attended theatres in New England, with approximately 250,000 patrons annually. With a national and regional reputation for artistic achievement, NSMT has received numerous industry awards including Elliot Norton Awards, IRNE Awards, the Rosetta Le Noire Award from Actors' Equity, and the Moss Hart Award. NSMT produced the World Premiere of "Memphis" in 2003, the show went on to win four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Under the new ownership of Bill Hanney since 2010, NSMT continues to annually produce a musical subscription series and an annual production of "A Christmas Carol" along with celebrity concerts, children's programming and year-round education classes for children and adults.
54 Dunham Road
Beverly, MA. 01915
# 978-232-7200
Fax # 978-232-9999
northshoremusictheatre@nsmt.org
