Sami Bray News

The national tour of SCHOOL OF ROCK, featuring a remarkable cast of child rock stars, is funny, hopeful, and a head-banging good time.

Say what you want about Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber but at least he's consistent. Consistently borrowing from others as is evident in the most recent offering from the Paramount Theatre, 'his' musical version of the 2003 movie 'The School of Rock'. And while it has adorable kids, absolutely shredding it with their vocals and musical chops on stage, it also has utterly forgettable and repetitious songs (at least the ones actually written by Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater) and a lead who takes mugging to a whole new, annoying level.

Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit School of Rock - The Musical is coming to Portland's Keller Auditorium from May 21 - 26.

Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit School of Rock - The Musical is coming to Seattle's Paramount Theatre from May 14 - 19.

Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit School of Rock - The Musical is coming to San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts (255 S. Almaden Blvd.) from Tuesday, June 4 through Sunday, June 9, 2019. 

SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL is bursting with kids, all of them bursting with talent. Based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the stage version is the brainchild of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a guy who knows a thing or two about creating successful musicals. Nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, the show ran for more than three years on Broadway, a little over a year in London, and the national tour has been on the road since September, 2017. It's a feel good musical with a happy ending, something to lighten up the winter doldrums.

SCHOOL OF ROCK is a musical about rebellion, the mantra of "sticking it to The Man", of children finding their voice in a controlled and advantaged setting and finding their courage to rise up.

Every kid with a performer's heart deserves to experience three things in their childhood: access to an incredible arts program, a passionate mentor, and a really great Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. For me, that was the Springfield (Missouri) Little Theatre, Beth D., and The Phantom of the Opera. I wish for all of today's youth to find the arts and an inspiring mentor. As for Webber for this generation, there is School of Rock The Musical, which actually touches on all of the above. The tour is visiting the National Theatre in Washington, DC this month and packs the biggest dreams and highest professionalism into the tiniest bodies.

School of Rock - The Musical is based on the movie by the same name originally staring Jack Black is currently playing at DeVos Performance Hall until January 13thin Grand Rapids. Andrew Lloyd Webber added some songs and made it a musical. One part that people find hard to believe is that the kids in the show must be able to play the instruments live. The kids can sing and dance, but it is taken to another level when they are playing instruments better than most adults can perform live on stage, show after show, some of them learning their instruments in only a few years or specifically for their audition for this show!

Before the show even begins, the voice of Andrew Lloyd Webber informs us all that the kids in SCHOOL OF ROCK play their instruments live. This becomes overwhelmingly impressive as the show progresses. SCHOOL OF ROCK: THE MUSICAL, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, and book by Julian Fellows is an adaption of the successful Paramount movie starring Jack Black. In this musical interpretation, the kids take centre stage as the stars of the show.

Casting has been announced for the Washington, D.C.  premiere of Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit School of Rock - The Musical, coming to the National Theatre for a limited engagement from January 16 - 27, 2019.

Complete with lights and haze machine, Andrew Lloyd Weber's School of Rock, opens with the fictitious Band, No Vacancy, singing "I'm Too Hot for You". As the super cool rockers do their thing, rock-god-wanna-be Dewey Finn (Merrit David James), super un-cool by comparison, does his. This results in him being forced out of the band.

Rocking the roofs off theatres across the country are a group of mega talented kids who have traded their time in the schoolroom to an adventure touring the country. Leanne Parks plays Katie, the classically trained cellist turned bass guitar genius.

Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's high-octane Broadway and West End hit SCHOOL OF ROCK - THE MUSICAL coming to Madison's Overture Center for the Arts Tuesday, Nov. 20 - Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018.

Take a new look at the national tour of School of Rock - The Musical!

There is a moment during the closing scene of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock when the show transforms from a mere crowd pleasing musical, to a pure and unadulterated celebration. Having witnessed the young students of Horace Green Preparatory School fully evolve from disenfranchised, rule-following and generally unhappy children, to confident rock stars willing to 'stick it to the man,' the audience cannot help but leap to its feet and join the party at the top of Mount Rock. More than a local battle of the bands, it is a celebration of the importance of arts education, the power of inspiring teachers, the joys of finding one's voice, and of the mind-blowing capacity for so much talent to exist in such small bodies and at such an early age. Judging by the standing ovation that began before and continued throughout the curtain call, it is clear that the Orpheum audience was fully invested in these young characters, and that School of Rock had therefore done its job. Indeed, this culminating scene is the ultimate payoff that makes the two and a half hours that precede it entirely worth the investment. The only disappointment was that there was no after party on Beale Street. Armed with their instruments and boundless talent, something tells me that the students of Horace Green Preparatory School could most certainly have brought down the house.

If you think you have seen musicals with talented kids in them before, you have not seen anything until you see the current National Tour of SCHOOL OF ROCK playing this week at the Schuster Center as the opener of the Victoria Theatre Association 2018-19 Premier Health Broadway Series.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit Broadway show, School of Rock the Musical, is based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black. It tells the story of Dewey (Rob Colletti), a down and out rock n' roll guitarist, who has just been kicked out of his band. Under false pretences, Dewey gets a gig teaching at Horace Green, a snooty preparatory school headed by Rosalie (Lexie Dorsett Sharp). Dewey is unprepared (and unlicensed) for the job and has no interest in it apart from financial - that is, until he hears the kids' talent in music class. Inspired, he begins to give them an education in music. This is entirely self-serving, as Dewey still wants to compete in an upcoming Battle of the Bands and sees the children as his ticket there.

Make no mistake about it: School of Rock isn't your mum's - nor your nan's - Andrew Lloyd Webber musical extravaganza. There are no massive chandeliers to come crashing into the orchestra, no fascist dictators to fear, no silent screen divas yearning for a comeback, nor are there are any human-sized felines staring at you across the footlights. Nope, Sir Andrew (as he's known across the pond) has crafted an energetic rock musical that's based on a movie that starred Jack Black and it will rock your freakin' socks off!

Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit School of Rock - The Musical will welcome eight new cast members to the national tour on Tuesday, August 28th in Ft. Worth, TX.