“Rocktopia” was not what I expected, but the musical event brought back some great memories. The two-hour concert opened at The Broadway Theatre on March 27 and featured some of greatest anthems and compositions of the 20th century. The limited six-week engagement includes a diverse group of multi-genre vocalists in entertainment today including co-creator Rob Evan (“Les Misérables”), Chloe Lowery (Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Tony Vincent (“American Idiot, “Rent,” NBC’s “The Voice”), Kimberly Nichole (NBC’s “The Voice”) and Alyson Cambridge (“The Merry Widow” at the Met Opera, “Madame Butterfly). The Rocktopia band features a five-piece rhythm section, a 20-piece orchestra, and the 40-member New York Contemporary Choir.
Co-created by world-renowned composer and arranger Maestro Randall Craig Fleischer (San Francisco Symphony), “Rocktopia” is a mixture of traditional and popular classical music from Mozart to Strauss, Beethoven to Handel, Tchaikovsky to Puccini; blended with classic and modern rock from Jimi Hendrix to The Beatles, The Who to Patti Smith, Elton John to Led Zeppelin and everyone in between.
Joining the Rocktopians on Broadway are special guest recording artists, Pat Monahan, a Grammy Award winner and lead singer of the Train, who is making his Broadway debut (scheduled performances now through April 8); Dee Snider, rock legend and lead singer of Twisted Sister, who returns to Broadway starting April 9 through 15; and Robin Zander, a Rock and Rock Hall of Famer and frontman of Cheap Trick, who will also make his Broadway debut and close out the production (April 23-29).
Though Evans and Fleischer assembled some of the best composers, arrangers, musicians, vocalists, and chorists, there was no story or narrative to support the innovative compositions created for this production. When I first heard about the show, I thought it would be similar to the highly successful “Rock of Ages,” musical which appeared on Broadway for nearly six years (2009-2015), with replicas of the production presented worldwide. “Rock of Ages” ties with the “Man of La Mancha” musical as the 28th longest-running show in Broadway history.
Once I accepted that I was at a music concert at a Broadway theater, I began to take in the genius of the concept and the arrangements that were brilliantly crafted collaborations including two of my favorites, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze;” and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmire.” There were many other standout performances including the Rock Ballerina Kimberly Nichole, and the extraordinary and skillful violinist Máiréad Nesbitt. In act two, there was an emotional moment in the production, which included a beautiful multi-media in Memoriam video montage which highlighted world leaders, social activists, legends and icons under the musical arrangement of “Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”
“Rocktopia” is an innovative concept with global appeal. The concept of fusing music genres is not new, but presenting a production of this magnitude on world stages is a concept I can get behind.
“Rocktopia” runs through April 29 at The Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway, New York, NY. For information, please visit, www.rocktopia.com.
Gwendolyn Quinn is an award-winning media strategist and consultant with a career spanning more than 25 years. She covers entertainment, travel, and lifestyle news. Quinn is a voting member of the Drama Desk. She is a contributor to NBCNews.com/NBCBLK.com, BlackEnterprise.com, HuffPost, and Medium.com, among others.
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