Theater Review by Michael Dale . . . .
“The heart of rock and roll is still beating,” announced Huey Lewis and The News back in 1983. I’m no expert in such matters, so I’ll take their word for it.
But I do know a bit about the heart of musical comedy, so while I entered the James Earl Jones Theatre knowing next to nothing about the band, whose catalog provides the score for The Heart of Rock and Roll, I left the theater a big fan . . . of the show’s book writer, Jonathan A. Abrams.
Writing the book for a musical is hard, and it’s even harder when you have to construct a show around a bunch of pre-existing songs. A hundred years ago, Broadway scribes like Herbert Fields and Fred Thompson were tasked with forming plots around potential hits for Gershwin, Porter, and Rodgers & Hart musicals that today are forgotten by most, save for the tipplers at Marie’s Crisis and Don’t Tell Mama. Nowadays accomplished theater writers like Lynn Nottage and Dominique Morisseau have impressively crafted bio-musicals out of already popular songwriter catalogs (MJ and Ain’t Too Proud, respectively), but attempts to make an original dramatic story out of pre-existing songs tend to fall flat when the hits that audiences come to hear aren’t specific enough to their new characters and contexts.
The Heart of Rock and Roll’s book works because it effectively mimics the enthused working class sincerity of the music and lyrics (the score is credited collectively to the band, “Huey Lewis and The News”) with sympathetic characters, a plot many can relate to, and solid humor that’s embedded within those characters and plot points. It’s not too much of a stretch to say it’s the sort of well-crafted, soft-on-the-brain merriment that made Golden Age musical comedies a major part of mid-20th Century pop culture, especially with director Gordon Greenberg keeping the proceedings galloping at a George Abbott faster-louder-funnier pace.
After a daydream prologue that ensures the audience believes in love (priorities), there’s a clever pun as the stage opens up to a line of assembly workers at Milwaukee’s Stone, Inc. factory, crafting cardboard boxes as they belt “It’s Hip To Be Square.”
On that line is our hero, Bobby, played with an abundance of charm, warmth, and killer vocal chops by Corey Cott. Back in Chicago, Bobby attempted to follow in his deceased father’s footsteps by fronting a rock band. But after ten years of sporadic gigs, he’s decided to opt for the security of a steady paycheck.
John Dossett exudes fatherly kindness with a rocker soul as the Stone behind Stone, Inc., who can effectively hide his heartbreak following his wife’s death three years prior—as well as his concern that the company is financially struggling—from everyone except his daughter, Cassandra (McKenzie Kurtz), whose business savvy is keeping the company afloat.
In a show that’s loaded with funny performances, Kurtz, who is originating her first Broadway role, is the comic find of the night; a bit reminiscent of Shelley Long’s Diane Chambers of TV’s “Cheers” as she excels when focused on stats and earnings but gets flustered from more personal encounters.
The crux of the story is that Bobby has ambitions to go into sales and tries to impress Stone by making a big unauthorized deal with a new client—one that actually sinks the company deeper into debt. Stone has no choice but to fire him, and Bobby tries to make good on his error by sneaking into the weekend’s convention in Chicago and landing a deal with Swedish furniture mogul, Otto Fjord (Orville Mendoza, dripping with Eurotrashiness).
Working together with Cassandra, they seal the deal, and Bobby celebrates by playing a one-night gig with his old bandmates (F. Michael Haynie, Raymond J. Lee, and John-Michael Lyles as aging rockers holding onto their dreams), and wouldn’t you know it, an important record exec is there and offers the band a touring and recording contract. But Bobby leaving Stone would kill the deal that would save the company.
Big laughs are scored by Tamika Lawrence as the wise-cracking HR manager and Billy Harrigan Tighe as Cassandra’s smarmy yuppie ex, who sees Bobby as competition for his attempt to rekindle the flame.
While there’s the occasional period pop culture reference, including Tommy Bracco as a Richard Simmons-type leading an aerobics dance number, there’s never anything so inside that it would leave anyone stumped. And, thankfully, there are no cheap gags dependent on the audience’s knowledge of the future.
Choreographer Lorin Latarro’s other featured moments include a lot of flips and acrobatics, plus an adorable bubble-wrap routine. Derek McLane’s sets and Japhy Weideman’s lights use a host of cheery pastels and primaries that could have been lifted from the palettes of late ‘80s TV entries like “Saved By The Bell” and Just Say Julie,” while Jen Caprio’s costumes appear plucked from MTV’s first decade of videos.
Oh yes, the songs! My Huey Lewis and The News-loving theater companion assures me that fans will be satisfied with the musical’s playlist (“Doing It All For My Baby,” “Stuck With You,” “If This Is It,” “The Power of Love,” “Giving It All Up For Love,” “I Want A New Drug,” etc.) and will enjoy how Brian Usifer’s textured orchestrations and arrangements enhance the band’s familiar sound.
The Heart of Rock and Roll may not change the world, and it certainly won’t change musical theater, but it’s a classic example of the genre I like to call the hey-that-was-fun-let’s-get-some-pizza musical, and it’s always good to have a few of them around.
The Heart of Rock and Roll. Open run at the James Earl Jones Theatre (138 W 48th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues). Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes with an intermission. www.heartofrocknrollbway.com
Photos: Matthew Murphy
