The Ontario Theatre Review: At the High School Project, a wildly talented group of young performers discovers just how much fun it can be to find your voice and turn up the volume
By Ross
“Please welcome to the stage…” That was all it took to hook me in completely, as the students of the Grand Theatre High School Project joyfully launch into School of Rock. The sheer joy coming from the stage is impossible to resist, and I gave myself over to its infectious fun almost instantly. I have watched the Grand’s High School Project year after year with genuine amazement at the level of talent these young performers bring to the stage, and this production joins that wonderful list, giving these students the chance to throw their Rock and Roll selves into something this big, this loud, and this gloriously fun.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock gives them plenty of room to be “cool as a popsicle,” to be “so friggin’ hot,” and to start “forging Rock and Roll” with an energy that never seems to drop a decibel. By the time Act One reaches its delightfully manipulative climax, with a rock talent show judge surrounded by determined students in their private school uniforms pleading for the competition to bend the rules just a little so they can audition, I was ready to surrender, and plead right along with them. It is a full-on emotional ambush, and no one stands a chance of denying them.
That feeling at the heart of this production is what makes this School of Rock such a wonderful choice for the High School Project. With a book by Julian Fellowes (Mary Poppins Musical), lyrics by Glenn Slater (A Bronx Tale), and new music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the musical, based on the Paramount movie by Mike White, gives these students the opportunity to stage, sing, dance, act, and, crucially, play their instruments onstage as part of the characters they are portraying. Under the direction of Lezlie Wade (Monty Python’s Spamalot at StratFest), with music direction by Matthew Atkins (Disney’s Newsies at The Grand HSP) and choreography by Julius Sermonia (CanStage’s Robin Hood), the production has the kind of infectious momentum that makes the story’s celebration of young people finding their voices feel completely at home on the Spriet Stage.
The students playing the School of Rock band are phenomenal musicians and performers, with Paxton Nair bringing a terrific flair to Zack on guitar, Malaya MacDonald on bass, Sam Harson on keyboard, and Daxton Scurr absolutely tearing into the drums as Freddie. Amaya Musvosvi gives the quiet Tomika a wonderfully awkward vulnerability that finally breaks through with a touching “Amazing Grace.” She captures the uncertainty of being the new kid while allowing us to see the confidence waiting underneath. The entire student ensemble brings that same sense of discovery and exhilaration to the stage, and it is obvious that this experience means something very real to them all.
At the centre of all that energy is Isaac De Melo as Dewey Finn, and he is shockingly good in a role that demands a very particular and difficult balancing act. Dewey is annoying, obnoxious, selfish, juvenile, dishonest and a complete troublemaker, yet De Melo never loses the heart underneath all that behaviour. From the moment he appears, singing, jumping and bouncing around the stage with the energy of a kid who has consumed far too many sugary drinks, he is a chaotic fireball of rock-star ambition, helped along by Sermonia’s wonderfully bouncy choreography. De Melo can absolutely rock, and he sings with the kind of conviction that allows us to understand why Dewey dreams so desperately of becoming a rock star. The real achievement, though, is the way he keeps us on Dewey’s side even while making one terrible and self-serving decision after another.
When he is kicked out of his band, No Vacancy, and impersonates his best friend and roommate Ned Schneebly to land a teaching job at the prestigious Horace Green Prep, his scheme quickly takes on a life of its own. Junior Van Geffen is hilarious as the awkwardly decent Ned, while also revealing the friendship and affection buried underneath Dewey’s selfishness. Isabelle Parent is equally terrific as Rosalie Mullins, the school’s principal, bringing a wonderfully unexpected warmth to the character and a delicious hint of Stevie Nicks hiding beneath the buttoned-up exterior. Together, De Melo, Van Geffen and Parent give the story a human centre that allows all the outrageous rock theatrics to land.
All-day recess is Dewey’s plan, but once he discovers that his students can actually play musical instruments, the musical takes off with a wonderful sense of possibility. His plan to form a kid rock band is initially about winning the Battle of the Bands for himself, and his methods of getting the students there are hilariously questionable, including the completely demented lie that they are suffering from a rare and fatal blood disease and that this may be their final opportunity to fulfil their musical dreams. They want this so badly, and watching them go after it is infectious. The show understands the exhilaration of finding something you love and realizing that you might actually be good at it, and there is something genuinely moving about watching these young people discover what happens when they are allowed to be loud, strange, rebellious and completely themselves. The student actors throw themselves into that transformation with extraordinary commitment. Marian Viancy Mamigo is terrific as the determined Summer, whose fierce insistence that the band be given its chance eventually breaks through the resistance of the talent show judge. It is this moment when the students plead their case with every molecule of their being that captures the spirit of the entire production.
Giving the exhilaration a physical world to inhabit, Julia Callon’s set is wonderfully created, allowing the stage to shift rapidly between the classrooms and corridors of Horace Green and the increasingly chaotic world of the band, with the student crew handling those transitions with impressive precision. I particularly loved the back wall of Horace Green alumni shifting from the school’s academic imagery into portraits of female music legends including Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, Blondie, Diana Ross and Madonna. That photo rotation turns the school itself into part of the rock-and-roll mythology that Dewey is trying to unleash. Meghan Choma’s costumes help establish the buttoned-up private-school world before the students’ personalities and musical identities break through into a punk sensibility that works, while Jareth Li’s lighting gives the stage the full force of a rock concert with a snap of the fingers when the band’s energy takes over. There is something wonderful about seeing a stage filled with students who are not simply pretending to be a rock band. They are the rock band, and the production gives them the space to showcase it.
I first encountered School of Rock when it arrived on Broadway, and I went into that experience with some reservations about whether a musical based on a 2003 Jack Black movie could really become the kind of stage musical I wanted it to be. Sitting in the Grand Theatre, watching these students attack the material with such commitment, I found myself far more interested in the joy happening directly in front of me than in any old expectations I may have carried into the theatre. This is exactly the kind of experience the Grand Theatre High School Project is built to provide: a full-scale musical in which young people are given the professional support, creative mentorship and responsibility to discover what they can do.
The 52 students involved in this year’s project, including the performers onstage and the students working behind the scenes, have clearly thrown themselves into that opportunity with enthusiastic relish, and the result is a School of Rock that feels alive with possibility. When the students finally get to stand together and play, sing, and rock out on their own terms, the excitement is contagious. This is not simply Dewey’s dream coming true. We are watching a group of extraordinarily talented young people have the time of their lives doing something they clearly love, and there could hardly be a better reason to welcome them to the stage.
September 22 to October 3 on the Spriet Stage at the Grand Theatre
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