“Sorry, can you just show me that again?” I say. “It basically starts on the seventh fret,” replies Jake Slack, 13. “On the G and B strings. Sometimes, I do it like this.” He’s off again, too fast for me to keep up.
I’m in the lobby of the New London theatre, jamming with the kids from School of Rock, and I am getting schooled. The musical, based on the 2003 film starring Jack Black as a supply teacher who shows the kids how to rock, features additional music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, and a book, if you can believe it, by Julian Fellowes.
Earlier, when the kids were posing for our photographer, Lloyd Webber himself passed by overhead on a walkway (in addition to producing the show, he also owns the theatre) and stopped to wave. “Hi Andrew!” shouted the children. “Hi!” he shouted back.
I meet Jake shortly after and we size up each other’s axes. Mine is a deeply distressed 1960s Fender of murky provenance. It says Jaguar on the headstock, but I’m pretty sure the body and the neck are from different guitars. “It’s quite nice,” says Jake, sceptically. His guitar is a pristine white Gibson Explorer. “Do they let you take that home at night?” I say. “I wish,” he replies.
Jake takes me through the chords to one of the songs in School of Rock: D, C, G and back to C. The bass player, Sophia, joins in. Oscar the keyboard player follows suit, while drummer Noah whacks a padded stool with his sticks. They shout words of encouragement to one another, some of which appear to be lines from the show. Watching Jake’s fingers for the changes, I remain half a beat behind throughout. When they all shift key at the end, I lose track completely. I’m sort of glad Lord Lloyd-Webber isn’t here to witness this.
School of Rock is already a hit on Broadway, earning four Tony nominations earlier this year. But bringing the show to Britain presented particular challenges. The New York version has a juvenile cast of 13, but UK child labour laws make it necessary to cast three rotating sets of kids – 39 in total. There were some doubts as to whether they could even find enough qualified 11, 12 and 13-year-olds, but they did. “We actually have that depth of talent in this country, amazingly,” says musical director Matt Smith.
Some of the kids – particularly the guitarists – were already accomplished musicians, but few, if any, had played much with other people before. “At that age,” says Smith, “while they can sit in their bedroom and noodle around, it’s rare for them to have much experience playing in a band.” The first week of rehearsals, in August, was dedicated to teaching the core instrumentalists to play like a group.
Largely as a way of ending my musical humiliation, I ask the group of 12 and 13-year-olds I’m playing with – Jake, Sophia Pettit, Oscar Francisco, Noah Key – what was the first thing to go wrong.
“Timing,” says Oscar.
“We were all out of time with each other,” says Noah.
“Timing,” says Sophia.
Jake tells me he’s been playing guitar for six years. “My dad’s been in bands,” he says. “All my family’s been in bands.” Are they all from musical families? “Yes,” says Oscar. “Yeah, says Noah. “Not really,” says Sophia. “I self-taught myself how to play the ukulele. Then I auditioned and they said, ‘Could you learn the bass?’ And I was like, ‘OK.’” She picked it up in two weeks. One gets the sense that for some of the cast members – and a few of the instructors – the story of School of Rock has become a bit autobiographical.
“I’m more on the musical theatre side of things,” says Noah. “I haven’t really been playing drums for very long. I found out this show was possibly coming to London, so I started learning the drums a bit.”
“I’ve had lessons since I was in reception,” says keyboard player Oscar.
In addition to playing together, the kids have to stay in step with the show’s seven-piece professional pit band. “Although we’re not actually in the pit,” says Smith. “We’re on a platform to the right of the stage, overlooking, so the audience can see us as well. There are scenes where the kids are rehearsing, or auditioning for a battle of the bands – and it’s all just them. So we, as the pit band, stand up and watch, to make absolutely sure that everyone knows it is definitely the kids playing.”
Lloyd Webber and his team have clearly grasped that this is the central appeal of School of Rock: watching children play classic rock on full-size instruments. It’s utterly compelling, like watching a monkey smoke a pipe. Smith had witnessed the impact the night before at a preview.
“We have grown used to it,” he says. “But last night I was very aware that the audience are seeing the kids play like that for the first time, and I kind of re-saw it through their eyes. You cannot help but be impressed when you see little humans, not just playing but rocking out.”
And they don’t just rock out – they sing and they dance and they act.
“Acting, that’s been a hard thing,” says Noah, who, like Sophia, took up his instrument relatively recently. “Because we haven’t been playing for that long and it’s really new, we have concentration faces when we play. We don’t realise it. And the director’s like, don’t pull faces when you play!”
“I make guitar faces,” says Jake. “I can’t help it.”
It strikes me as odd that these kids have such a natural affinity with rock, a largely historical genre. Most of them weren’t even born when the film was released. “It’s not what I would call the music of the young people of today,” I say.
“Everyone listens to grime and rap,” says Jake.
“And pop,” says Oscar, spitting out the word. All valid forms, insists Jake, but not what they play when they jam together.
“We usually play like, Green Day, Guns N’ Roses,” he says.
“Like at the house we have a roomful of instruments,” says Oscar.
“Yeah, at the School of Rock house,” says Noah.
“Wait,” I say. “There’s a School of Rock house?”
“It’s for kids who live too far away,” says Noah. “Basically, if someone doesn’t live in London. Me and Oscar are in the house and the other guitarists are in there.”
“It sounds to me like there should be a musical called School of Rock House,” I say.
“That’d be a good musical,” says Noah.
“Yeah, I’d come and see that,” says Jake. “Toby snaps trees and stuff.”
“There’s a tyre swing,” explains Noah. “Well, there used to be a tyre swing.”
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School of Rock the Musical is at New London theatre, booking until 28 May.
