School of Rock, now playing at the Pantages Theatre and then bouncing around California for most of the summer, is a loud rock ‘n’ roll musical from the man who gave us Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera and Evita: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Buried beneath its loud exterior is a subtext that is exemplified by its lead character Dewey Finn, played on the tour by Rob Colletti.
As in the 2003 Richard Linklater film on which this musical is based, Dewey Finn dreams of being a rock star. Unable to pay his bills, he intercepts his friend’s offer to be a substitute teacher. Totally untrained and unprepared to lead students toward higher learning, he lands the job and teaches the kids the one thing he knows best: rock music. What presents itself as a rock musical is, at its very core, a story about the value of music education.
If you look at Colletti’s bio in the program for the show you’ll see his credits (The Book of Mormon as Elder Cunningham, The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Grease.) But it was the last line that intrigued me most: “For Ms. Brady, my first music teacher.” So when I spoke with Colletti by phone it didn’t take too long for her name to come up. Though he didn’t tell me about his high school performances as Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors nor Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar.
Andrew Lloyd Webber said in an interview with NPR in 2015 that “every school has got a Dewey.” Did you have a Dewey in your high school? If so, who was it?
I guess Carolyn Brady was my Dewey. She was my first ever theatre and music teacher in high school. I went to a Catholic High School [St. Francis High School in Wheaton, IL] and she really went against what you would anticipate a traditional curriculum in a Catholic high school to be. She exposed us to the musical theatre classics, Buried Child by Sam Shepard, The Laramie Project. We actually got to read plays and we would do readings in our theatre class to see what the story would feel like. It wasn’t just theatre. She showed us video of operas and concerts by people who made a difference in her life. And art.
Tell me how your met Ms. Brady.
I grew up playing sports my entire life and in high school I actually started acting by accident. I auditioned for a play my freshman year. I went with a friend who walked by my locker and said “do this thing with me.” I ended up getting the lead role. Ms. Brady said “You should do it. You’re really good.” I ended up doing every show the whole time I was in high school. I wouldn’t be here without her encouragement. She opened my eyes to how different your world could be by going out of your comfort zone.
Culture wasn’t an inherent part of your upbringing?
There’s sort of a culture within the world my parents came from where they just didn’t have exposure to anyone outside of their world. It’s a blue-collar community, it’s very white, very Christian and anything else is sort of abnormal.
How did all these things Carolyn Brady exposed you to prepare you for the life and career you have now?
When you expose yourself to anything outside of that, then you are not doing what’s expected of you. I thought what was expected was to be there for other people. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I wasn’t living the truest version of my life. I wouldn’t have discovered the things about myself that I’ve grown to love about myself like music, art, politics. It’s very risqué to talk about politics in my house and my community. If you go against that you are a bit of a wild card and people notice that. To not have to carry that burden, knowing I would have found [the arts,] and then been stuck in that community, that would have been a very rude awakening. I wouldn’t have been happy.
Given everything Colletti has said so far, I felt it was time I looked up Carolyn Brady to get her point of view on her former student and the impact a teacher could have. Ms. Brady is Carolyn Jean Brady and she has a voice studio of her own after teaching at St. Francis High School for 16 years.
How did you get away with teaching some of the things you did within a Catholic high school?
They are a relatively liberal school, but I’ll be honest, nobody knocked on my door and asked to look at my curriculum. I felt like teens in Wheaton were so incredibly sheltered living so close to a big city [Chicago] and they didn’t know it was okay to be different. I remember being an angsty teenager and I wanted to give them an opportunity to be empowered.
What do you remember most about the time Rob was there?
I never imagined I’d be a teacher. I kind of fell into and I’m so happy I did. When I started working with Rob I had created that position at the high school. I was figuring it all out as I went. Rob’s just such a character and this was a kid who wanted to learn and know more and see more and learn outside of himself.
Rob has been on Broadway and is touring the country now. You must be thrilled and to see your name in the program must have been amazing.
It blew me away. I couldn’t even breathe. I feel like being a teacher is the gift that keeps on giving. I’m really humbled by it. I just want to spend the energy on them. I feel like I’m just giving them the rules and they are the ones doing the work.
Now back to Rob Colletti, who is finding out that teaching and inspiring people is something he may also be doing.
School of Rock plays like a rock concert. But isn’t advocacy of music education really at the heart of the show?
No question and especially timely given the current political climate. I think it’s so important to be able to relay that message on a nightly basis. People definitely see that. The most meaningful part of my job is there have been a few times when a kid has come to the stage door and even an elderly woman, who said they would take up an instrument the next day. To have that impact on one person is so gratifying. It’s pretty incredible.
All production photos by Matthew Murphy
