Route 66, the fabled American highway immortalised on film and in song – a fitting backdrop for a new rock musical, especially one produced in association with legendary motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson. Sadly this is one show that arrives with two flat tyres, a stalled engine, and turns out to be the stage equivalent of watching a multi-car pile-up.
There are so many elements that don’t work here; it is difficult to know where to start. Fundamentally the question needs to be asked if this is actually a musical. Ross Mills, Ged Graham (who also stars) and Ryan Mills have created a paper-thin central story about a legendary rock star, Rocky Rhodes, who walked out of a concert in Madison Square Garden in the 90s and hasn’t been seen since. Twenty-odd years later and radio station Route 66 FM teams up with his former roadie to head out on a trip across the USA to find him. The plot, such as it is, serves nothing more as an excuse to play nearly 50 American classic songs. Apart from a couple of half-hearted efforts (a comedy vicar joins the search for Rocky as an excuse to sing Son Of A Preacher Man and Living On A Prayer), songs are not integrated into the action and long sections pass without any narrative as we hurtle through the music catalogue.
When there is dialogue it is of questionable quality. There are echoes of both We Will Rock You and Rock Of Ages but those seem almost works of Tolstoy compared to this. Of course a rock musical shouldn’t be serious but it does need a story and here it seems to be a tribute show that is occasionally interrupted by some weak dialogue. When a character has to turn to the audience once to ask if they are getting it and a second time to explain a line was a joke you know you’re in trouble. When actors forget lines or have to ask for their notes to introduce the next scene, things descend from the comical into the ridiculous.
Ok, so the script doesn’t work but many in the audience will have come to hear the music. Therein lies the second major problem. These anthems have stood the test of time as they were performed by artists who knew how to deliver a song. Here it often seems that the cast are struggling with the sheer range of many of these power ballads. Lyrics are lost with only the ends of lines being sung with conviction. There is also a tendency to confuse vocal power with shouting, further distorting clarity.
Performances aren’t helped by the sound design that leaves even spoken lines struggling to be heard. Alongside sound, lighting often leaves performers in semi-darkness and the billed spectacular staging is little more than a Harley parked stage right, a bar stage left, two American Flags, a neon sign and a star cloth.
Midway through the second act, the ‘plot’ is stopped for 20 minutes to introduce 80s rock star John Parr, who abandons any pretence of being integrated into a musical and performs a set of his material. No reason, no plot device, just a straightforward guest appearance.
It all adds up for a muddled and confusing evening, not particularly well executed. The overwhelming feeling is of embarrassment for the company, desperately trying to encourage the audience to put their hands in the air and clap, but after the countless and out-of-context cries of ‘come on, Cambridge’, even the cast gives up.
American Anthems needs to decide what it is and fast. If it wants to be a rock musical, it needs to find the strong story that it so badly lacks. If it just wants to be a celebration of classic American road anthems, fine - just cut back the 2 hour 45 minute running time, improve the production values and focus on performance and delivery.
As it is, this is one road trip that needs the urgent attention of a breakdown service - that’s if the show isn’t already a total write-off.
Originally written for The Public Reviews
2 comments:
what a truly terrible show.i left in the interval.
I agree almost entirely with your comments. I really wish I had found a review like this before I wasted my money to the show on Sunday 5 Feb at Basingstoke. I read the highly favourable reviews (albeit dating back to 2010) on the americananthems.co.uk website and decided to go on the strength of those, having seen the show I then tried to submit my own review on their site and got a database error!! For reference, this is my review of the Basingstoke show which immediately followed the Cambridge one, so on the basis of these two duff shows, I think I can safely recommend to anyone reading this - don't go! My attempted submission of a review for the Basingstoke show: On a bitterly cold Sunday night, I "headed out on the highway" to Basingstoke to see American Anthems. A rock musical with a set list featuring some of my favourite rock songs of all time, it couldn't fail... or could it? The story about a radio station's quest to track down a rock legend (Rocky Rhodes?) and bring him to Madison Square Garden for one last concert was not particularly inspiring, but this and the journey around America it entailed (Memphis, Alabama etc) were presumably written to accommodate the choices of songs afforded by these locations. The cast took to the stage with two of my favourite rock tracks, Steppenwolf's "Born to be wild" and Springsteen's "Born to run." However, whilst the band were incredibly tight and at times excellent (brilliant intro to Meat Loaf's "Bat out of hell" and outro to Eagles' "Hotel California" being standout moments), and the stage was packed with energetic dancers, the male vocalists seemed to struggle to carry the tunes of some of these great songs, notably seeming to bottle the high notes on songs like Boston's "More than a feeling", Bon Jovi's "Living on a prayer" and Michael Bolton's "How am I supposed to live without you". By contrast, the female vocalists were consistently strong with lively and powerful renditions of classics from the likes of Cher, Tina Turner and Heart. As they mentioned in an earlier comment, they were not a tribute band, and it was important to remember this when judging the quality of the male singing too harshly. However, unlike some other musicals, the story itself was so ropey and the selection of songs by contrast so good that attention inevitably turned to the music and the quality of the delivery. On another day, the audience could have been persuaded to sing along, but on a cold night and with a fairly sparse and older audience, the struggles of the male vocals were too plain to see, and (from my point of view at least) the fact that some of my favourite songs were delivered in such a low-key manner made for an ultimately disappointing evening, despite the aforementioned strong points of the band, female singers and dancing. Guest star John Parr appeared in the second half and injected some much-needed life into proceedings with a rousing rendition of his 1985 smash "St Elmo's fire" and a couple of other songs interspersed with some more great guitar work, but the expected climax at the end of the evening when "Rocky Rhodes" finally made the stage and delivered a woeful version of Guns'n'Roses' "Sweet child of mine" and the whole cast finished with an anticlimactic chorus of Kiss' "God gave rock'n'roll (or was it Rocky Rhodes - the cast didn't seem too sure!) to you II" which left me feeling cold long before I ventured back out into the snow. In summary, there were good points - an energetic dance score, some decent female vocalists and an excellent band. If you are just looking for a night out with some classic rock to sing along to, this show may be for you. However, if you were looking for a musical with a great story, this wasn't it. And if you wanted some quality vocal performances of your favourite rock songs, then a tribute band or the real thing would be a far better bet.
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