He has managed to freeload for years off his gangly best buddy and former goth-rock bandmate (Maggot Death was their name), Ned Schneebly (Spencer Moses, appealing in the Mike White role). The song establishes instantly that Dewey’s spotlight-stealing guitar riffs and athletic performance style put him out of step with the group’s deluded sense of their own coolness, so it’s no surprise when he’s fired. The show opens with a funny Rock of Ages redux moment, as aging hair-metal band No Vacancy performs “I’m Too Hot For You,” their paunches peeking out from fringed leather vests and tight T-shirts. The actor is bracingly in the moment at all times, engaging with the kids in ways that indicate genuine mutual affection, whether Dewey is brushing them off while nursing a hangover or driving them to unleash the rocker within. What’s great about his work though is that while it’s undeniably a raucous star turn, it’s also wonderfully inclusive of each and every performer who surrounds him, particularly the young ones. With his indefatigable comic energy and explosive physicality, Brightman makes a winning scoutmaster. And at a time when attention is being paid to diversity in entertainment, the mix of children from different racial backgrounds adds another refreshing layer to the experience. But their infectious delight as they etch their distinct personalities and seize both their individual and collective right to be heard is irresistible. It might sound lame to suggest that School of Rock works in large part because of the charms of a bunch of adorable kids. Where it distinguishes itself is in providing the sheer unalloyed pleasure of being in the same physical space as the baker’s dozen preteen stars while they “Stick It to the Man,” to quote one of the show’s catchier songs. That means the musical is funny and endearing for much the same reasons as the movie. The creative team on the show, including director Laurence Connor, wisely chooses not to mess with those ingredients, and Fellowes‘ work on the adaptation is all but invisible, beyond adding some new jokes and contemporary references. Black’s galvanizing antic performance as Dewey, the renegade pied piper of bad-assery, was the ignition key, but it was Mike White’s warmly captivating screenplay that tapped into the cathartic power of self-expression with so much heart. But the director’s deft handling gave it a special edge, tempering the inherent cuteness in the story (buttoned-up, unhip prep-schoolers liberate their inner rock gods) with intelligence and genuine emotion. Richard Linklater’s hit 2003 comedy is probably the most mainstream film of his maverick career. But any nitpicking about the craft of book writer Julian Fellowes (a long way from Downton Abbey), composer-producer Andrew Lloyd Webber (back in the same Broadway theater where his Cats purred for 18 years) and lyricist Glenn Slater has to be allayed by the acknowledgment that they celebrate the strengths of the source material. In terms of screen-to-stage remakes, this is neither the most imaginative nor the most pedestrian of them, falling somewhere in the respectable midrange. Saturday Night' to Close on Broadway in September
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