Rock of Ages (Hollywood) on Tour
Fifteen years after its debut, Rock of Ages has come home to Hollywood. The Tony Award-nominated hair-metal jukebox musical has enjoyed an epic run on Broadway, toured the world, and been adapted into a feature film, but now, like a veteran singer heading to Vegas, Rock of Ages is enjoying a site-specific residency overseen by the show's original creator, Matthew Weaver. The show's fictional bar, The Bourbon Room, is now an actual restaurant/performance stage on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where the show's ‘80s Sunset Strip setting is brought to life in a space artfully modeled after classic LA rock dives like the Troubadour and Whisky a Go-Go. But this dinner-theater adaptation of the show serves up all the grit with a touch of class: given that Weaver went on to executive-produce the cooking show Chef's Table for Netflix and the instant foodie classic Jiro Dreams of Sushi, he's ensured The Bourbon Room's food and cocktail offerings are fit for the most decadent rock star.
Rock of Ages (Hollywood) Background
At the heart of every great rock anthem — be it Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" or Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" — is a poignant, heartrending underdog story, and Rock of Ages effectively took that idea and spun it into Broadway gold. The jukebox musical time-warps audiences back to LA's Sunset Strip during the hair-metal heyday of the 1980s, telling the story of rock-star hopeful Drew Boley and his love interest Sherrie through the biggest fist-pumping hits and most majestic power ballads of the era. After debuting to sold-out limited engagements in LA in 2005-06, the show made its way to Broadway in 2009 and parked the proverbial tour bus there for the next six years, staging over 2,000 performances en route to joining the ranks of the Top 30 longest-running Broadway shows ever. Over the years, the show has made pit stops everywhere from Switzerland to South Africa, and it spawned a big-screen adaptation starring Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, and Alec Baldwin in 2012. But in 2019, Rock of Ages returned to its local roots, taking up residence in a real-life re-creation of the show's fictional venue, The Bourbon Room, on Hollywood Boulevard.