Rock & Roll Man NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (810)
See it if you like R&R; you love the 50's and 60's music and ready to make a splash in the past
Don't see it if you don't like R&R; don't like the 50's or the 60's; are not interested in knowing how R&R became a world phenomena
See it if Enjoy musicals and history.
Don't see it if You do not enjoy music from 40’s & 50’s.
See it if The story of Allen Freed who coined the name for integrated music “Rock & Roll”. Kids danced &kissed to this genre creating issue.Music 👍🏼
Don't see it if No reason not to see Read more
See it if you love a good docudrama, with top notch acting and singing and infectious music.
Don't see it if Unless you don't appreciate early rock n roll music, there is no reason not to see it. In fact, I plan on seeing it again in near future. Read more
See it if Amazing acting, dancing, music, story. Def one of my favorite shows!!! Will see again 100%. Thank you show score for the comp tix!!!!!!
Don't see it if You don’t like docu shows. You are too young to appreciate older classics. Or history lessons. Just see it if you are over 50. 100% will luv
See it if Must-see for R&R fans, want Alan Freed's back-strory, are a fan Joe Pantolioni from the Sopranos. Want to see & hear great R&R acts
Don't see it if You don't enjoy Rock & Roll music. Aren't interested in Alan Freed's story Read more
See it if You like jukebox musicals about a radio DJ who defied society’s norms to play classic music of black musicians, integrate shows and audience
Don't see it if You don’t like musicals, especially jukebox musicals of 60s music Read more
See it if You like rock and roll of the 50’s and 60’s. You want to see a fun, and relevant musical about the birth of rock and roll
Don't see it if You won’t enjoy 50’s rock and roll or don’t want to see a fun, based on a true story, musical
Critic Reviews (22)
“Freed was an interesting fellow, and his life was plenty rock ’n’ roll. ...The storytelling is especially haphazard when dealing with his family life.”
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“ ‘Rock & Roll Man’ gets rough around the edges when it comes to its original songs. Gary Kupper’s compositions turn up as garden-variety ballads and place-fillers instead of driving the story. They’re no match for the oldies but still goodies.”
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“If you’re an older theatergoer, you pay the price of admission in hopes of recapturing a little bit of your youth through the staged presentation of the songs that underscored it. In that way, ‘Rock and Roll Man’ serves the same purpose as...any number of boomer nostalgia acts that have come and gone over the past two decades. By no means the worst of these jukebox musicals, it nevertheless fails to distinguish itself.”
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"It's putting it mildly that Freed worked on a sliding moral scale, which is the main reason that Rock & Roll Man never knows what to make of him. If it can't endow him with a rogue's charm, it also fails at the tougher analysis that might have allowed him both his considerable flaws and his place in rock history."
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“The joy of the show–the chance to hear classic rock and roll–is also the source of its greatest frustration...The glossy and glossed over production doesn't do the man justice. Freed was by all accounts a pioneering rebel under his clean-cut demeanor, but this ‘Rock & Roll Man’ is a real square.”
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“Many, if not all, the songs made famous by these players are featured, not always in full versions. Nevertheless, enough are sung and played to keep rock-and-rollers of a certain 1950s-60s age happy...Younger audience members are likely to wig out as well.”
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“This is a show that attempts to cover so many bases it winds up missing the ball entirely."
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Rock & Roll Man, the new Jukebox/Biographical musical at the New World Stages has a great deal going for it. The story of legendary Rock & Roll impresario Alan Freed is told in a series of delicious period songs with a few original works (by Gary Kupper who also cowrote the libretto with Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola) thrown in. The show is basically factual, although a tad exaggerated, and doesn’t shy away from Freed’s well-known issues such as his alcoholism and taking payola. Best of all, the cast is led by Constantine Maroulis in a complicated, fine-tuned and, for him, subdued performance.
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