Cruise is such an iconic figure that it’s easy to buy him as the movie’s biggest cultural icon. Although one is a song and the other a human being, there’s a certain similarity between “Don’t Stop Believin’” and actor Cruise, at least in the way the two are employed. “Don’t Stop Believin’” has taken on a renewed life of its own by now, but somehow that resonance simply helps sell its use here (one of ROCK’s deadpan jokes is that this is a composition by our hero Drew). There are misunderstandings, betrayals, reconciliations galore and rock and pop anthems every few seconds. An intimate concert by the legendary band Arsenal before its frontman Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) goes his own way is meant to buoy up the fortunes of the Bourbon. Other concerns for the Bourbon Room include self-styled moral crusader Patricia Whitmore, whose husband is the mayor (Bryan Cranston). Drew promptly gets Sherrie a waitress job at the Bourbon, where rock-loving manager Dennis (Alec Baldwin) is constantly worried about the night’s receipts, but buoyed up by his loyal assistant Lonny (Russell Brand). She almost immediately meets Drew Boley (Diego Boneta), an aspiring rocker who works as a busboy at the famed Bourbon Room on the Sunset Strip. Here Hough’s Sherrie gets off the (singing) bus to Los Angeles, hoping to start a career as a singer. Not having seen the stage version but simply comparing the lists of character names, it would seen that the screenplay by Justin Theroux and original Broadway scripter Chris D’Arienzo and Allan Loeb has gone through some changes in its journey from one medium to another. Not incidentally, the film ROCK OF AGES, like the film HAIRSPRAY, is directed by Adam Shankman, a former choreographer who seems to take special delight in showcasing the considerable terpsichorean talents of the leading ladies here, especially Julianne Hough as ingénue Sherrie Christian and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the vengefully censorious Patricia Whitmore. Despite the depiction of groupies, copious alcohol consumption, evil business management practices and some extras who look like they’ve danced out of ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, ROCK OF AGES has at heart an innocent optimism that makes HAIRSPRAY look cynical by comparison.
In the case of ROCK OF AGES, what we get is a movie about a small-town girl and a city boy – yes, that is a reference to “Don’t Stop Believin’,” a song that we hear several times throughout the film – caught up in the big bad world of the Hollywood music scene.
This sort of set-up could go any which way the wind blows. A “jukebox musical,” for those unfamiliar with the term, is a show with a non-original score – in this instance, think MAMMA MIA!, but with Eighties rock and pop instead of ABBA songs. ROCK OF AGES the movie is adapted from ROCK OF AGES, the Broadway jukebox musical. Writers: Justin Theroux and Chris D’Arienzo and Allan Loeb, based on the stage musical book by Chris D’Arienzo Stars: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, Bryan Cranston, Paul Giamatti, Mary J.
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