Everybody loves an underdog story and John Yanko’s performance as Dewy Finn in School of Rock this season has been off the leash.
The stage adaptation, based on the 2003 Paramount Movie about an affable wanna-be-rockstar, wrapped up on Saturday after an astonishing 18 shows.
Joining Yanko on centre stage was lead acress Anna Dinyés who delivered an equally exquisite performance as Rosalie Mullins, the Principal of Forest Green.
Dinyés, with her extensive training in classical voice, piano and musical theory, is Mozart’s true Queen of The Night, absolutely crushing each solo, live and without autotune, just like the maestro intended.
While Yanko and Dinyés razzle and dazzled the audience with their charismatic and consummate performances, an entire cast of children, teenagers and adults, playing the roles of students and parents, were similarly sublime.
As the program notes, the children’s roles were all double cast, which gave ‘twice as many incredible Melbourne kids the change to shine on stage’. Executive Producer Andrew G acknowledged that for many of the children on stage this was their first production of this scale and that their approach was one of ‘courage, enthusiasm, and professionalism beyond their years’.
At times, the audience felt like they were part of the action on stage. At one point Yanko, surrounded by his students, stood up in the middle of the classroom on a desk and excitingly announced: ‘You’re in the band!’. He might just as well have been referring to us in the crowd.
In addition to Andrew Llyod Webber’s musical score there were plenty of rock references scattered throughout the performance. At intermission friends Anna, Mary and Sophie were able to recall several anecdotes during the first half including from Whitney, Queen, ACDC, Bowie, KISS, Tina Turner and Black Sabbath.
Yanko’s zany performance, darting across the stage, singing, dancing, imparting rock philosophy to his students and simultaneously shredding his guitar, brought to memory Jim Carrey in his prime as Ace Ventura.
The season finale culminated in a standing ovation.
Hammer Types 