School of Rock - Gillian Lynne / UK Tour

Bless those kiddy-winks. Looking forward to this in January. Should I watch the movie first though?..

The movie is great but the musical stands on it's own so I wouldn't say it's necessary.

I'm totally thrilled with my £15 slap-bang-in-the-centre Circle Row E seat

It did have a revolve for War Horse and I remember the company manager telling me that she thought the revolve would stay there after War Horse had closed but I presume it got taken out for Show Boat and this is a new one?

Anyone else off to School of Rock this week? I'm going tonight!

I'm there tonight in a £15 Circle ticket.

Thursday for me! £15 Side Stalls!

I've got a £15 seat for Saturday. Really looking forward to seeing it! I loved it on Broadway.

Thursday for me, £15 row E circle.

Gaah, was offered tickets to the dress rehearsal on Saturday night, would have been a great experience, but alas was otherwise engaged. Looking forward to hearing preview feedback.

An ebullient Lloyd Webber referred to the fact that the dress rehearsal went well at the start of the show tonight, when he took to the stage with director, Laurence Connor, for the customary "please be gentle with us, it's the first show" speech, but instead he told us he wouldn't make that speech precisely because the dress rehearsal went smoothly. Instead, he took the opportunity to point out that the kids really play their instruments, which comment was primed to enhance the enjoyment of suspicious types, who would otherwise sit there all night musing that kids couldn't possibly be playing this well.

The kids' musical proficiency and exuberance certainly went down well with kids in the audience, as I heard at least a couple of young ones enthuse to their beaming dad that this was the "best show" they had "ever seen."

It wasn't the best show I've ever seen, but it was an excellent one nonetheless, rousing and mindlessly entertaining in the manner of Kinky Boots, a sort of Kinky Boots for the young and the young-at-heart, with drag queens replaced by bouncing children and glam replaced by rock.

At first I was worried. A fan of the film, and a fan of rock in general, I found the general absence of rock for the first half of the first half dispiriting. Where the film had Jack Black belting out Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," this show had only a couple of Viking wails, followed by a prompt change of song. Where the film had Jack Black's wired enthusiasm for rock's transformative power, this show had a general lethargy to it's opening scenes, with the hardest rock in the first quarter being Mozart's "Queen of the Night" aria. And David Fynn lacked Black's comic precision.

Fynn is, however, a better actor than Black, with a more believable and naturalistic stage presence. And while I didn't immediately appreciate this, over the course of the evening, his loveable slob of a character grew on me exponentially.

In the second half of the first act, the musical finally earned it's moniker, as the rock classes got under way. Songs like "You're in the band," "If only you would listen," and the twice reprised "In the End of Time" and "Stick it to the Man" really up the ante in the rock stakes, as our lethargic lead turns into an energiser bunny in the presence of his bouncing rock tot students, who sing and bounce their hearts out, as well as play instruments, as only multi-hyphenate students of the Sylvia Young and Italia Conti Schools can.

Earning Most Valuable Player status in the "they're so small but how do they do that" stakes were Toby Lee as Zack, on lead guitar, who got the most raucous cheers for his crazy finger-picking, Amma Ris as Tomika on vocals, who got "oohs" and "ahs" for her powerful warm tone, and Isabelle Methven, as Summer, who did the most precocious acting.

The most typical Andrew Lloyd Webber moment of the night came when the wonderful Florence Andrews, as quirky School Principal, Rosalie Mullins, gave heartfelt tender expression to his sentimental and touching song, "Where did the Rock go?" If Florence Andrews is ever off, I see she is covered by the talented Rosanna Hyland, whose comic quirkiness and fulsome singing, are otherwise totally wasted in a nothing ensemble role.

By the end of the night, David Fynn fully inhabited the role of Dewey Finn (can their names really be so similar?), and I thoroughly enjoyed his rock antics with the ensemble of fired-up kids for the last few songs.

I can't claim that any dramatic moments really hit home in this show, bar that one Florence Andrews moment, but the let-your-hair-down-and-be-silly rock numbers are infectious, and engendered a standing ovation at the end. Fun!

4 stars

Fabulously written review, Steve. I'm seeing it in a few weeks, not dying of anticipation because there's a a lot of great new shows suddenly opening in London, but I'm sure it'll be a fun Sunday at the theatre.