School may be ‘out’ for the holidays but it’s very ‘in’ for Palmerston North’s Act Three Productions. What better way to follow the huge artistic and box office success of 2024’s multi-award-winning production of Matilda – and incidentally celebrate the society’s 125^th anniversary* – than to head straight back into the classroom with School of Rock.

Take a class of precocious pupils, a likeable rogue, some raucous live rock, and presto! – musical baton successfully passed from one school-based production to the next. And by the looks of it, from one acting generation to the next. Many of the kids who featured so promisingly in Matilda are back for seconds in this New Zealand community theatre premiere, while Phil Anstis – aka Matilda’s Miss Trunchball – takes on the pivotal role of Dewey Finn.  

Based on the 2003 movie with Jack Black, this up tempo feel-good 2015 musical theatre adaptation with Andrew Lloyd Webber has won award nominations and applause on both sides of the Atlantic. Dewey, a ne’er-do-well try-hard rock star, is down on his luck. A bit of a derr, Dewey is an unwanted housemate who owes rent and has just been sacked from his band. When a way out of his financial woes beckons, he grabs it – impersonating his flattie Ned Schneebly as a substitute teacher at the prestigious private Horace Green Elementary School.

On learning his young class of high achievers understands music – albeit the classical kind – Dewey sets out to transform them into a rock band capable of winning the Battle of the Bands. To succeed all he has to do is convince the kids, bin the curriculum, sidestep principal Rosalie Mullins, duck the staff, evade angry parents and avoid Ned’s control freak partner – the shrewish Patty. 

Onstage throughout, Anstis does far more than simply channel his inner Jack Black. Manipulative, mercurial and sometimes manic, he fully embraces his obsessively single-minded larger-than-life ‘loser’ character in this irresistible portrayal.

Another piece of excellent casting sees classically trained Jenna Baxter as principal Rosalie – a prim strait-laced closet Stevie Nicks fan. To her ‘belt’ voice, Baxter adds the virtuoso operatic coloratura crescendo from Mozart’s Magic Flute, ensuring her limited solo excursions are memorable ones. The ‘Where Did the Rock Go?’ Roadhouse duet she shares with Dewey makes just the right emotional connection during the show’s only hint at romance.

Producing their own indelible performance moments are two alternating 13-member ensembles of intermediate-aged children – who, in addition to singing, acting and dancing, also have to play instruments live. Whether it’s the dynamite drumming of brothers Jacob and Reuben Lauridson, flashy keyboards from Annie Schrichantra and Angela Du, sassy bass lines by Annie Miles and Darcie Warren, or six-string chops and flair courtesy of guitarists Jonte Cuppen and Caleb Henderson, these kids really rock! There’s also gorgeous acapella ‘Amazing Grace’ from Lucy Chan and Charlotte Busuttin-Wong, with Lucy Bennett and Martha Khanna majoring in commonsense backchat.

That this show is such great fun is largely due to the generous onstage relationship Anstis shares with his junior casts. Featuring the ‘Rocky Roadiez’ on opening night, and the ‘Horace Howlers’ on Saturday, both ensembles slot in seamlessly, with perhaps team Howlers gaining an edge due to slightly better diction overall.

There’s a dozen or so performers in the adult ensemble who contribute valuable texture as they flesh out assorted ancillary roles including Clio Exconde as nice-guy Ned, and a strident Milana Mariu-Reade as go-getter Patty.

Act Three have taken something of a risk with this production, blooding first time co-directors Jacob McDonald and Jon Samia. The pair make a solid start, keeping things simple and well-paced, and relying on the experience of their leading man. Trucked sets, flying backdrops, screens and lighting maintain the flow during numerous scene changes. The set’s fly-in faux wooden rafters suggest an homage to the former Abbey Theatre where Act Three – in its earlier iterations as Palmerston North Operatic Society, and Abbey Musical Theatre – spent 30 or so of its 125 years.

Remoting the onstage instruments alleviated the need for plug-in cables – though this may have contributed to a certain harshness in the radio frequency sound on opening night. The second night was not without sound issues either – among them a couple of dead mics and some annoyingly fluctuating vocal levels.

The musical heart of the piece is its cracking eight-piece pit band with an offstage 10-voice mixed age choir under the control of twin MDs Barry Jones and Lottie Perry. Dance director Kate Martin makes use of what can only be described as skilfully choreographed anarchy – a striking and dynamic mix of movement, groupings, posturing and gestures that when performed by the children is simply ‘energiser bunny’ bonkers. Fantastic.

Palmy audiences are notoriously reluctant to leave their seats no matter how well a performance engages or entertains. That this production managed to coax at least half of the opening night crowd to their feet says a great deal. While there are aspects of the production that ‘could do better’, over two nights, School of Rock’s high aggregate marks and gold star-earning casts score this lively romp an ‘A-plus’.

*The first Palmerston North Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society production in 1900 was Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance staged in the town’s (no longer existing) Theatre Royal.

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