SCHOOL OF ROCK (Musical)
School of Rock is a rock musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes. Based on the 2003 film of the same name, with a screenplay by Mike White, the musical follows Dewey Finn, an out-of-work rock singer and guitarist who pretends to be a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. After identifying the musical talent in his students, Dewey forms a band of fifth-graders, in an attempt to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands contest. The musical was announced in December 2014 and opened just under a year later on December 6, 2015. It made its Broadway debut and world premiere at the Winter Garden Theatre on December 6, 2015, following previews that began on November 9, 2015. (More from Wikipedia)
Just because a hip hop musical made this big a splash doesn’t mean that rock musicals have gone away. Broadway titan Andrew Lloyd Webber returned to his roots with his current show, School of Rock that opened on Broadway four months after Hamilton, on December 6, 2015. The musical is based on the delightful Jack Black film from 2003, School of Rock that follows a washed-up rock musician who conceives the idea of masquerading as a substitute teacher and pressing a group of fourth graders into backing him at the local Battle of the Bands in order to get his career back on track.
While many of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s shows had pop and rock music flourishes, including his other Biblical musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, his later shows until School of Rock have been more traditional musicals for the most part.
(September 2016)
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Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.
September 2016 – 1980’s punk/rap band LIGHTNING STRIKE; Story of the Month on Patti Smith; also, Hamilton, School of Rock, MFSB, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Bob Dylan, Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, the Fat Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Kid ’N Play, MC Hammer, Rick James, Vanilla Ice, Blondie / Deborah Harry, Salt-N-Pepa, the Sugarhill Gang, Nile Rodgers / Chic, Ravales.
(Year 7 Review)
