Constantine Maroulis as Alan Freed, the title character of Rock & Roll Man.
The last time that Constantine Maroulis trod the boards of New World Stages was in 2008. Capitalizing on his dynamic American Idol appearances, he was cast as the hard rocking Drew in the ’80s-themed jukebox musical, Rock of Ages, a part that he would parlay into a Broadway run. Now, as the title character in Rock & Roll Man, he has returned to the venue, with shorter hair, to lead another period musical that’s full of classic hits. But this time he leads from behind, supporting a sensational ensemble that steals the show and never gives it back.
Valisa LeKae as LaVern Baker accompanied by a crooner (Jamonté).
Maroulis plays Alan Freed, the Cleveland DJ who coined the phrase “rock and roll,” while blazing a trail for bringing black music to the ears of white listeners in the early 1950s. The book, by Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola, attempts to frame Freed’s quick rise and fall within a surreal dream, the man’s life passing before him just before his death. But it consistently forgets itself in becoming a straightforward biography. And most of Freed’s stage time consists of him introducing the marvelous musical acts he championed, rather than singing out himself. Maroulis’s pent-up desire to belt is palpable, so much so that when he finally gets his big number, late in the second act, he ends it with a sustained note that brings the audience to its feet.
The play begins at the end, in 1965, with an alcoholic Freed withering away at his Palm Springs home. He slips into a feverish nightmare, finding himself in a courtroom, on trial for “destruction of the American way of life.” His prosecutor is that anti-interracial, ultraconservative cross-dresser, J. Edgar Hoover (veteran actor Bob Ari); his attorney is rock legend Little Richard (Rodrick Covington). The verdict is that, like a bad dream, this recurring conceit is best forgotten.
Rodrick Covington plays Little Richard, who is defense attorney for Allen Freed in the nightmare trial prosecuted by J. Edgar Hoover. Photographs by Joan Marcus.
The action shifts to a Cleveland bar where Freed meets Leo Mintz (Joe Pantoliano), the record store owner who turns Freed on to the fact that teens of all colors who frequent his shop are united in their love of the era’s black singers and their often racy repertoire. To introduce the music to the masses, Mintz strikes a deal to sponsor Freed’s radio production, “The Moondog Show.” It’s a hit, and soon the duo are staging a live gathering, 1952’s “The Moondog Coronation Ball,” considered to be the world’s first major rock concert. It ends in mayhem, however—cut short when the arena is massively oversold.
Soon enough, New York comes calling and Freed finds himself spinning platters at WINS radio. Wanting to stage more concerts, he strikes a deal with the mobbed-up Morris Levy (Pantoliano), a man who knows how to handle the union bosses. This leads to another first by Freed, the first cross-country concert tour featuring both white and black acts. It also, however, leads to rioting in Boston, crackdowns by Hoover, charges of payola and the booze-soaked decrescendo of a once promising life.
As Mintz, under the direction of Randal Myler, Pantoliano gags his way through a part clearly written as comic relief. Sporting an oversized suit, polka-dot bow tie and a crazy Bozo the Clown ring of gray hair, one expects him to pull out a seltzer bottle at any moment. As Levy, Pantoliano’s turn of phrase and off-kilter glances can’t help but bring to mind his shivering work in The Sopranos as the psycho mafioso, Ralphie Cifaretto, albeit here he’s a mobster who breaks out in song.
Leo Mintz (Joe Pantoliano, left) and Freed (Maroulis) hatch a plan.
All of this pretext aside, it is the performances of some two dozen vintage melodies that transform the evening into something magical. First and foremost there is Valsia LeKae as LaVern Baker, killing it with Lincoln Chase’s “Jim Dandy,” Winfield Scott’s “Tweedle Dee’’ and Ma Rainey’s “See See Rider,” spaced throughout the evening like well-timed shots of adrenaline. Then there is the quintet of AJ Davis, Jamonté, Lawrence Dandridge, Eric B. Turner and Matthew S. Morgan, mixing and matching their way through effortlessly great versions of “Yakety Yak” and the like.
Finally, there is Covington’s freewheeling Little Richard, released from dream court to serve up a rollicking “Good Golly”/“Tutti Frutti” medley. He also gets the evening’s most poignant bit of weirdness, appearing in a TV ad for Dairy Queen, where he metaphorically sums up Freed’s career:
Now some people like vanilla. Some like chocolate too. The Dairy Queen likes to twist ‘em both together which some folks don’t like you to do. Ooh child looks like we done made a mess.
Rock & Roll Man plays through Sept. 3 at New World Stages (340 West 50th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday and Thursday, and at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and information, call (212) 239-6200 or visit rockandrollmanthemusical.com.
Book: Gary Kupper & Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola
Original Music & Lyrics: Gary Kupper
Direction: Randal Myler
Choreography: Stephanie Klemons
Sets: Tim Mackabee
Costumes: Leon Dobkowski
Lighting: Matthew Richards and Aja M. Jackson
Sound: Ed Chapman
Projections: Christopher Ash
