Photo by Isaac Mishkit.

Presented by Seacoast Repertory Theatre
Book by Chris D’Arienzo
Arrangements and orchestrations by Ethan Popp
Direction by Alyssa Dumas
Music Direction by Andrew Strout
Choreography by Alyssa Dumas and Dargan Cole
Featuring Jared LeMay, Sophie Mings, Christopher Hobson, Jamie Bradley, Michelle Faria, Tobin Moss, Spencer “Skip” Stewart, Sean Mullaney, Alexandra Mullaney, Sieglinda Fox, Michael Thompson, Dargan Cole, Hadley Withington, Heather Conti-Clark, Briar MacDonald, Finn Graff, Max Cavanaugh, Robert Fabricio Armstrong, and Shaina Schwartz

July 18 – September 8, 2024
Seacoast Rep.
125 Bow St.
Portsmouth, NH 03801

Review by Craig Idlebrook

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — The production team of the Seacoast Repertory Theatre likely faced a dilemma when considering to stage Rock of Ages, the big-hair-metal jukebox musical. The theater is small and intimate, with limited seating surrounding the stage on three sides. How, in this environment do you stage a musical in which the musical genre calls for soaring guitar solos and high notes belted to the rafters? Do you pull back to fit the space or do you say, “(bleep) it, let’s turn it up to 11?”

Luckily, this production chose the latter, wisely deciding that many theatergoers misspent their youth playing metal so loudly on Walkman cassette players that all they could hear afterwards was ringing sounds. Like Grease before it, the only way this nostalgia trip works is by going full tilt. Continue reading →