◎Huang Zhe
"School of Rock" returned to China after five years. I decided to review it without much hesitation - although I had already thought that this work marked "suitable for children over five years old" would be staged during the summer vacation, Tianqiao Arts There must be a scene of "a mountain of children and a sea of children" in the Central Grand Theater. However, in the domestic musical performance market that is full of accompaniment tapes, the use of live bands has become the conscience of the industry; it is really rare to have a theater full of actors playing and singing by themselves.
Children help great artists make a comeback.
This traditional work about campus and children was written by Andrew Webber when he was nearly seventy years old, many years after he stopped writing. When Weber was in his 20s, he produced masterpieces such as "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita"; when he redefined musical theater with "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera", he was not yet convinced. Because of his attitude of emphasizing both classical and avant-garde music, he brought musical theater closer to the art of the palace. With his talent output in the first half of his life, he won the glorious title of "Godfather of Musical Theater".
But who would have thought that after the age of forty, Weber would go downhill: the market is so fickle and ruthless that it will not buy it just because he was awarded a knighthood and other prestigious titles. In 1993, his "Sunset Boulevard" swept many awards and was moderately well-received but not a hit. After that, he released a new film that was a failure, and he lost the good reputation and hard-earned money he had earned previously.
Entering the new century, Weber discovered that an American movie called "School of Rock" was a good material for adapting a musical. The story tells the story of Dewey, an aspiring rock singer who was short of money and resorted to medical treatment. He pretended to be his friend Ned and became a substitute teacher at an elite school. A group of academic masters who need to be good children according to the goals set by others. Because of their musical talent and interest, their life trajectory has changed since then. Who would have thought that the rigid female principal actually had a rock 'n' roll heart, and she and the fake teacher who looked like a good-for-nothing had never known each other before. The two had a wonderful chemical reaction just like in " office story ".
Weber bought the musical rights to the film and did not release the finished product until ten years later. As a result, a group of young actors around the age of 10 actually allowed him to "turn a profit" for the first time in more than 30 years after "The Phantom of the Opera".
"Chicken Baby" is indeed a point of deep resonance.
Most of the foreign musicals that have performed well in the Chinese market are adaptations of classics. When one comes into contact with current realistic themes, one often encounters acclimatization due to differences in life and context. The success of "School of Rock" does not rely on routines such as romantic love and changing one's fate against fate. These are all features of successful musicals. Its most important secret of winning is the sentence in the play, "The goal of our elementary school is to send students to Harvard, and at worst, Cornell." The "chicken baby" and being "chicken" are indeed the most popular among adults and children all over the world. A point of deep resonance shared by children. "Don't question authority", "Don't clean this up, it's useless", "I'm doing this for your own good"... Not long after the show started, the audience was mercilessly shown the butts behind the beautiful peacock feathers of elite schools and parents.
The drama has made some small changes that are friendly to local audiences: Jay Chou has been added to the list of students’ music idols; there is also an exclusive post-10s post like “The biggest worry for students is that parents secretly add you on QQ” of local stalks. But the overall plot of the play, especially the core setting, is rock-solid: being unconditionally "chicken" - awakened by rock and roll - using rock and roll to speak out.
In Weber's personal growth experience, a similar "chicken baby" plot also played out. Weber's parents are senior classical musicians and educators, and it was natural for him to have everything arranged by his parents. In reality, Weber did not meet the spicy teacher who sent him divine providence, but with his extremely high understanding and talent, he completed self-enlightenment, awakening, and the most important self-accumulation very early. He realized that he did not have a super talent for classical music performance, so he won a full scholarship at the age of 16 and entered Oxford University to study history. However, the path of a historian also "collapsed in the middle". After a year of studying at Oxford, he dropped out. The prodigal son returned and was admitted to the Royal College of Music and graduated successfully. Moreover, Les, Webb's friend at Oxford, later became a lyricist, and the two collaborated on many works.
◎Huang Zhe
"School of Rock" returned to China after five years. I decided to review it without much hesitation - although I had already thought that this work marked "suitable for children over five years old" would be staged during the summer vacation, Tianqiao Arts There must be a scene of "a mountain of children and a sea of children" in the Central Grand Theater. However, in the domestic musical performance market that is full of accompaniment tapes, the use of live bands has become the conscience of the industry; it is really rare to have a theater full of actors playing and singing by themselves.
Children help great artists make a comeback.
This traditional work about campus and children was written by Andrew Webber when he was nearly seventy years old, many years after he stopped writing. When Weber was in his 20s, he produced masterpieces such as "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita"; when he redefined musical theater with "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera", he was not yet convinced. Because of his attitude of emphasizing both classical and avant-garde music, he brought musical theater closer to the art of the palace. With his talent output in the first half of his life, he won the glorious title of "Godfather of Musical Theater".
But who would have thought that after the age of forty, Weber would go downhill: the market is so fickle and ruthless that it will not buy it just because he was awarded a knighthood and other prestigious titles. In 1993, his "Sunset Boulevard" swept many awards and was moderately well-received but not a hit. After that, he released a new film that was a failure, and he lost the good reputation and hard-earned money he had earned previously.
Entering the new century, Weber discovered that an American movie called "School of Rock" was a good material for adapting a musical. The story tells the story of Dewey, an aspiring rock singer who was short of money and resorted to medical treatment. He pretended to be his friend Ned and became a substitute teacher at an elite school. A group of academic masters who need to be good children according to the goals set by others. Because of their musical talent and interest, their life trajectory has changed since then. Who would have thought that the rigid female principal actually had a rock 'n' roll heart, and she and the fake teacher who looked like a good-for-nothing had never known each other before. The two had a wonderful chemical reaction just like in " office story ".
Weber bought the musical rights to the film and did not release the finished product until ten years later. As a result, a group of young actors around the age of 10 actually allowed him to "turn a profit" for the first time in more than 30 years after "The Phantom of the Opera".
"Chicken Baby" is indeed a point of deep resonance.
Most of the foreign musicals that have performed well in the Chinese market are adaptations of classics. When one comes into contact with current realistic themes, one often encounters acclimatization due to differences in life and context. The success of "School of Rock" does not rely on routines such as romantic love and changing one's fate against fate. These are all features of successful musicals. Its most important secret of winning is the sentence in the play, "The goal of our elementary school is to send students to Harvard, and at worst, Cornell." The "chicken baby" and being "chicken" are indeed the most popular among adults and children all over the world. A point of deep resonance shared by children. "Don't question authority", "Don't clean this up, it's useless", "I'm doing this for your own good"... Not long after the show started, the audience was mercilessly shown the butts behind the beautiful peacock feathers of elite schools and parents.
The drama has made some small changes that are friendly to local audiences: Jay Chou has been added to the list of students’ music idols; there is also an exclusive post-10s post like “The biggest worry for students is that parents secretly add you on QQ” of local stalks. But the overall plot of the play, especially the core setting, is rock-solid: being unconditionally "chicken" - awakened by rock and roll - using rock and roll to speak out.
In Weber's personal growth experience, a similar "chicken baby" plot also played out. Weber's parents are senior classical musicians and educators, and it was natural for him to have everything arranged by his parents. In reality, Weber did not meet the spicy teacher who sent him divine providence, but with his extremely high understanding and talent, he completed self-enlightenment, awakening, and the most important self-accumulation very early. He realized that he did not have a super talent for classical music performance, so he won a full scholarship at the age of 16 and entered Oxford University to study history. However, the path of a historian also "collapsed in the middle". After a year of studying at Oxford, he dropped out. The prodigal son returned and was admitted to the Royal College of Music and graduated successfully. Moreover, Les, Webb's friend at Oxford, later became a lyricist, and the two collaborated on many works.
Although he returned to the road of music, Weber's path was very different from the one his parents thought he was - he was born in the 1940s and was a typical European and American post-war baby boomer. In his youth in the 1960s, he My favorite is undoubtedly rock music, which represents "rebellion with plenty of food and clothing". In the past, from the perspective and concept of classical music, rock music was the standard garbage of the era and social pollution; while the treatment of musicals was slightly better than that of rock music, but it was still a low-level show of skills and could not reach the level of elegance.
Therefore, the children's group character song "I Want You to Listen" in the play is exactly the natural sound of Weber's fake actor, singing the strongest inner voice to his childhood self and parents; another weighty song "Shout Loud" ", first sung to the children by the frustrated Dewey, and later throughout the play, it became a motto for children to fight for their reasonable rights. "Stickittotheman" translates as "shouting loudly". It is more elegant but less expressive, but it is understandable considering the feelings of underage viewers. If the rhyme is not changed, something like "Don't be cowardly, just do it" may be more accurate and powerful. In reality, the young Weber used an atypical "do it if you don't accept it" and lived a life beyond the expectations of his parents.
Is the spirit of rock and roll obsolete?
After watching the performance, and thinking of the recently staged movie " Catch a Baby ", the kind-hearted Chinese audience couldn't help but worry about the cute kids in "School of Rock": Fortunately, the children's final performance was a great success. , to finally wipe out the uproar caused previously. If the performance fails, not only will the fake teacher be imprisoned, but the principal's future will also be ruined. And the elite parents who have lost all face, with the utilitarian mentality they showed before, will they have to work harder or "practice a trumpet" after calming down?
So the question is: What is the spirit of rock and roll? Is the spirit of rock and roll obsolete today? The answer sung in "School of Rock" is "Rock and roll doesn't make sense/Rock and roll doesn't have rules/Rock and roll is anger and shouting." There is nothing wrong with this, but questioning or even breaking the rules, expressing anger or even shouting are just means. It is easiest to break, destroy and give up, what happens after that? If you just want to have fun, I'm afraid it will be "painful and fast" as mentioned in the domestic rock-themed movie " Beijing Le Yulu ", and you will lose even more miserably.
When Dewey brought the student band to the TV station to participate in a singing competition, the children found the dress and behavior of the adult rock musicians novel and even a bit blind to worship. Dewey also reminded the students as someone who had been there: They were just pretending to be cool. In fact, it’s not cool at all. If you believe it, you’ll lose.
If it were satisfied with just "I discovered for the first time that I could be so cool", then "School of Rock" would be a cool drama at best. Among the many exciting stories of musicals, no one can compare with "Matilda" - using magic to reduce dimensionality to strike, repaying injustice for those who have been wronged, and revenge for those who have vengeance. But "School of Rock" has been recorded in the history of musicals as a big play; "Matilda" is a good play, but at best it is a small play that maximizes childlike innocence.
You might as well take a look at the high praise given to "School of Rock": the rock version "Dead Poets Society", the fat house version "The Sound of Music", the academic version "Springtime of the Cowherd"...these have been used The classics in horizontal comparison all share the core of the rock spirit of "toughness lasts longer than sharpness": sincerely face yourself and your environment, and insist on what you think is worth it, even if others don't understand it.
There are two character reversals in the play that surprise people with their resilience and persistence. When the top student's class faced off against the fake teacher for the first time, the class president, Summer, had a line that instantly established the character's character: "My parents paid me $50,000 in tuition, not for me to take a break after class!" Summer originally said She is an almost perfect super academic in the eyes of adults, but because she questioned the identity of the substitute teacher, she fell out of favor with the principal who originally valued her most, and became an isolated minority; then she exposed her weakness of not being able to sing, and was not allowed to appear on the stage. The White Swan Became the ugly duckling. But after discovering that she had the talent to be a manager, she taught herself management courses and became an excellent band manager.
The other is the female principal who looks old-fashioned. At the critical moment, she bet on the future of her children and her own career, and dared to say "I will take full responsibility" to protect them from realizing their dreams and completing the show. Although she chose a career that seemed "uncool", she persisted until the end and retained her strength and positive attitude. She was completely cool at critical moments and was not affected by other people's eyes at all. Rather than destroying and destroying without hesitation, isn't this the ultimate version of the rock-and-roll boss? Perhaps this is more in line with our expectations for the spirit of rock and roll. Photo courtesy of
/Tianqiao Art Center
The other is the female principal who looks old-fashioned. At the critical moment, she bet on the future of her children and her own career, and dared to say "I will take full responsibility" to protect them from realizing their dreams and completing the show. Although she chose a career that seemed "uncool", she persisted until the end and retained her strength and positive attitude. She was completely cool at critical moments and was not affected by other people's eyes at all. Rather than destroying and destroying without hesitation, isn't this the ultimate version of the rock-and-roll boss? Perhaps this is more in line with our expectations for the spirit of rock and roll. Photo courtesy of
/Tianqiao Art Center
