Eli Glasner, The Buzz, CBC NewsĪs the American Idolization of pop culture continues, Rock of Ages hoovers up a decade (or so) of hair metal into a karaoke sing-a-long. Verdict: Tired, sordid, inane: just when you thought jukebox musicals could sink no lower Rock of Ages at the Shaftesbury Theatre manages it. I suppose the undistinguished rock numbers are ground out efficiently enough, but otherwise the show strikes me as having no redeeming merits whatever. I usually have a soft spot for cheesy sleaze, but there is something repellent about this show’s leering manner, while the subplot involving a crude caricatured German property developer, who wants to demolish Sunset Strip, and his outrageously camp son proves as infantile as it is unfunny.
The jokes are unfunny, the story both predictable and appallingly written, while the acting – with the club’s proprietor played by low-grade TV presenter Justin Lee Collins with X-Factor veteran Shayne Ward as the rock god – is dismal. Its aim is to celebrate the glam metal bands of the period, a genre sometimes known as “poodle rock” because of the absurd blow-dried hairstyles of many of its leading practitioners. Yet another in the apparently endless parade of mindless jukebox musicals, Rock of Ages is set in the Los Angeles of the Eighties. This is as unpleasant a pile of theatrical poo as it has ever been my misfortune to tread in. Here's a look at what critics have to say: The film stars Tom Cruise as the rockstar Stacee Jaxx, inpired from the brodway character of the same name. Plot Synopsis: A small town girl Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and city boy Drew (Diego Boneta), who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. He has shocked his daughter but has he rocked the reviewers with his performance?Ĭast: Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta Tom Cruise has ventured into a new space by playing rockstar Stacee Jaxx.