The hilarious movie starring Jack Black, “School of Rock,” has come to Chicago’s Cadillac Theatre from Nov. 1-19. However, this time, it’s in the form of a musical.
Although it doesn’t live up to the movie, it did have its own charms. One of the aspects that stuck in the musical is the obscure character that is Dewey Finn. Just like in the film, Finn poses as his friend Ned to substitute at a prestigious prep school to earn some extra cash. The struggling and dead-beat man soon finds out that his students are musical prodigies and uses that to his advantage. He trains them in the art of rock in order to compete in the battle of the bands.
Classic scenes, such as “sticking it to the man” were featured throughout the musical. It was an interesting and loyal production that included many of the same lines from the movie. Of course, the musical had a variety or original songs, accompanied by the familiar tunes of “you’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore” and the classic school of rock song.
It also had some of the iconic lines from the students like “you’re tacky and I hate you!” And, of course, who could forget the line “so get off you ath and do some math. Math, math, math, math…”? All lines we heard in the movie.
The cast was comprised of children with only a few adults. The talent of the kids who played the students was what kept the attention of the audience. They ranged in vocal ranges and dance skills, with very close skill of the original cast members of the movie. What was the most amazing thing about the performers that all of the instruments they were playing were actually being played live. There was no prerecorded instrumental music for the production.
Each cast member crafted their character in their own unique way to distinguish themselves from their movie counterparts. Perhaps that’s what captivates is their originality on already established characters. After all, it would be boring if each character was exactly like their movie counterpart. It created a sense of uniqueness and originality on an already done storyline.
Overall, while it wasn’t as funny as the movie, it still posed some laughs from the audience. It is definitely worth seeing during its short run in Chicago.
