‘Rock of Ages’ still has life at new home in Rio

You can't stop the rock, man. But you can shuffle it off to the Rio and see what happens next.

Life doesn't exactly mirror art when it comes to "Rock of Ages." After a villainous German developer decides to tear down their beloved rock club, the characters are too busy waving protest signs to think about scouting a new location.

In real life, though, the producers of "Rock of Ages" decided to find how much life remains in the '80s rock musical after The Venetian targeted its theater for redevelopment, or at least a new show.

The Rio version now requires extra effort for tourists on the Strip, but it can say it's the "Rock" of record. The musical closed on Broadway early last year, leaving Las Vegas as the only place (beyond a new version available for high schools) to see the tongue-in-cheek salute to hair metal and Bic-flicking power ballads.

If enough people still care, the Rio turns out to be a fine place to see it. A different Broadway producer spent a lot of money last year to revamp the former Club Rio's stage for the short-lived "Duck Commander Musical."

And the 650-seat venue's past life as a nightclub sure can't hurt, even if it accounts for an odd reversal: The posh, comfortable seating is in the rear of the oval room, while straight rows of chairs are closer to the stage on the former dance floor.

(As ticketed shows continue to lose ground on the Strip, you'd think the venues would take a cue from recent movie theater trends and trade a little seating capacity for comfort. Leave the stackable chairs to Amway conventions.)

The Bourbon Room set looms large, and spills its Sunset Boulevard signage out beyond the formal stage, into side wings that briefly host some of the action. Hint: Dudes who will appreciate the strip-club portion of the evening's dramaturgy may consider these side areas.

If the big ensemble numbers — sending us off to our eight-minute intermission to the strains of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" — seem a little cramped, the trade-off is direct communication.

Lonny (Mark Shunnock), our dude-riffic narrator, pops up in the audience. Even the fourth-wall asides from the stage seem like they are spoken directly to us. And our love interests (Justin Mortelliti and Becca Kotte) get to play their few non-jokey moments a little more naturally.

This "Rock" is otherwise consistent with its three years at The Venetian, from the live band onstage to an experienced cast that has fine-tuned the arch tone. The challenge is not getting cheap laughs from the broad, self-mocking script by Chris D'Arienzo but grounding it just enough to make us invest a little.

Sherrie Christian (Kotte) is just a small-town girl with both a first and last name convenient for name-checking in '80s power-ballads. Drew (Mortelliti) is the aspiring rock star and Bourbon Room busboy, immediately smitten. But their blooming romance will be challenged not just by the threat to their workplace from developer Hertz (Robert Torti) and son Franz (Dane Biren), but by hair-metal king Stacee Jaxx (Colt Prattes). He's the bad boy to end all MTV bad boys, but one teetering at the edge of his throne.

You sense the Las Vegas career of "Rock" may be on borrowed time at this point, a suspicion that isn't discouraged by the imminent departure of Shunock and Mortelliti; the latter will be replaced by Paul Johnson on Feb. 29.

On the other hand, repeat viewings can make the show more endearing. The first time, it's frustrating to see how the already thin story basically implodes in the home stretch, going vaudeville with big, silly reaches to pair up two sets of characters, or having Lonny intervene as a "dramatic conjurer" when another character has already told Drew where to find Sherrie.

Repeat viewings actually make it easier to roll with all that. Chalk it up to the strong ensemble in which even the smaller roles (Troy Burgess as the club owner, Deidre Lang as the strip-club den mother) stand out, and the power of '80s nostalgia.

Oldies ranging from Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" to Extreme's "More Than Words" get repurposed as show tunes. As with "Mamma Mia!," it can be surprisingly effective. Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" becomes the "11th hour" song to neatly tie together different characters and their issues.

And when the show opened at The Venetian, the synthesizer intro to Europe's "The Final Countdown" made you look at each other and go, "Oh yeah! I remember that one. Who did it?" Now the ubiquitous Geico commercial reminds us you not only can't stop the rock, but that it will always have the last laugh.

— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.