School of Rock – The Forum Theatre, Romiley

Based on the film written by Mike White. Directed by Dominic Stannage.

For those few who don’t already know the story of School of Rock, the show follows Dewey Finn, a struggling musician who longs to be a rock star. After being kicked out of his own band, Dewey is penniless and jobless. To meet his rent obligations, he disguises himself as a substitute teacher and lands a job at a prestigious private school. Totally out of his depth, Dewey ignores the usual curriculum and focuses on developing the musically talented children. He forms a rock band with the 10-year-olds in the hope of winning the upcoming Battle of the Bands competition – all the while attempting to hide his true identity.

There was a considerable buzz in the foyer in anticipation of the start of the show, a very nice atmosphere indeed. 80s rock music was playing as the audience took their seats for what was practically a sold-out performance, which was quite an achievement for the first night. The published programme was of excellent quality and contained pictures of all the adult cast members as children giving you the opportunity to guess who was who. (I think I got all the female cast correct but I was thrown by some of the males.)

The casting of the show was exceedingly well done, which I guess would be down to the director. John Redfern came out of semi-retirement to take on the role of Dewey Finn and did a wonderful job with what is a very demanding part – he was barely off the stage in the whole 2.5 hours of the show. The role of the school principal, Miss Rosalie Mullins, was filled by the incredibly talented Charlotte Lavelle, whose vocal range defies description. The development of her role from staid school principal to wannabe rock chick was extremely well performed. From a personal point of view, it was great to see Charlotte back on the stage again.

The backstage musicians, led by musical director Ceri Graves, were excellent and a nice touch was that they all wore the same uniforms as the children. The on-stage kids band were coached by Mark Davies, and he did a brilliant job with this. Considering that none of the young musicians had ever been in a production before and they had to act as well as play all their own instruments, they all did an amazing job.

Then on to the children. Wow, what an amazing group of talented young people I had the privilege of watching. I was actually quite surprised because I thought I knew most of the children down at NK Theatre Arts having been down there myself until relatively recently, but of the 14 children in the ensemble I only knew 2 of them, so it was a pleasure to see some amazing new talent coming along into the group. I’ve no room to mention them all by name, but the stand-out performances for me were Franki Lidguard who took on the role of Summer, the band manager and was practically running the show throughout and the unbelievably talented Ava Staines-Heath who as Tomika managed to channel her inner Aretha Franklin and gave an incredible performance which gave me the chills every time she sang – an amazing performance, this girl will go far! Special mention must also go to Rivkah Kneen whose choreography of this production was as good as any I have ever seen even in any of the shows at the big city centre theatres.

If I have to pick up on one slight criticism, it would be that the sound quality on occasions was not as it should have been, often individual microphones were late being switched on, so you missed what was being said, especially by the children. I am assured by the theatre management that they expect the production to be much slicker as the week goes on.

I remember taking my granddaughter as an 8/9-year-old down to London to the Gillian Lynne theatre in 2016 and I can honestly say that this production by the youngsters of NK Theatre Arts came very close to the quality of that one. All the children were amazing and ably supported by a superb adult cast. You must see this show!

Reviewer: David S Clarke                                          

Reviewed: 22nd March 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★★