"School of Rock"

Performances: 1,309.
Open / Close: December 6, 2015 – January 20, 2019
Theater: The Winter Garden Theatre.
Tony Awards: Two of this show’s four Tony nominations – for Best Musical and Best Original Score – earned Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber his 22nd and 23rd nominations (he has gained 2 more since). Webber has won a total of 6 Tony Awards. The other two were for Best Book (Julian Fellowes) and Best Actor for Alex Brightman. Brightman notably lost out to Leslie Odom Jr. for “Hamilton.”
Fun Fact: Despite the “stick to the man” ethic of “School of Rock,” book writer Julian Fellowes famously votes with the conservatives among whom he serves in the British House of Lords. His politics have been more specifically classified as libertarian so maybe that’s not as ironic as it might first seem.

Podcast

“School of Rock” opened on Broadway just a few years after “Billy Elliot” closed but, even though the shows have some surface-level similarities, it’s hard to think of two more different stories. The earlier show was a rough-and-tumble look at a working class young boy’s potential escape from his impoverished life; the latter was about adults who act like children and very posh adolescents learning to shed some of their rich-kid stuffiness.

Both shows were handicapped in their long runs because of their reliance on young actors who are wont to age-out of plum roles relatively quickly, as I talk about with my guest Brian Baez.

Brian has an extensive career as a performer but his vocation over the past decade or so has been in the realm of casting. He has worked casting talent for cruise ships for many years and recently opened his own business in the Netherlands that expands that core mission into different creative directions.

Brian and I talk quite a bit about working in “non-traditional venues” like cruise ships and theme parks. His work related to “School of Rock” was at a theme park during the time when the show was being developed from its movie incarnation to the stage version. He has plenty of fun anecdotes from that time and he provides some interesting background on what’s involved in that fascinating corner of the live performance world.

Andrew Lloyd Webber clearly uncomfortable doing his duty to introduce the “School of Rock” crew who really do knock it out of the park.

The whole crew on the real Broadway stage. I gotta say: I’d definitely watch Alex Brightman in most anything.

British version. There are clearly talented kids all over the world. This version is a little backup singer forward but still fun.

The movie scene for contrast. Doesn’t quite pop as much as it does on stage, right? Too much Jack Black in my opinion, but a couple fun sightings of Mike White in the crowd.