Rock Opera

It's anyone's guess whether "Lovelace: A Rock Opera," Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey's urgent, tuneful elegy for the star of "Deep Throat," can rival that porn landmark's reach. However, we are undeniably watching something original, at once refined and electrifying. This sense of discovery drives "Lovelace," based on a concept by Jeffery Leonard Bowman, who supplied some of the lyrics. Schematically, it echoes many a popera predecessor -- "Tommy," "Blood Brothers," pick a Lloyd Webber.

UNDERRATED 'Borgen' on LinkTV : Viewers drawn into AMC's "The Killing" (adapted from the taut Danish import, "Forbrydelsen") should seek out the similar aesthetics of this political drama, a Denmark-born twist on "The West Wing" covering European politics, the media and a cunning prime minister, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen. Plus, with NBC reportedly working on an adaptation, you can get onboard before the series (with English subtitles) shoots itself in the foot in the States.

Some rock historians may argue the point, but for all intents the Who's "Tommy" was the quintessential rock opera of the 1960s, almost single-handedly defining the form upon its release in 1969. "Tommy" made musical history again the following year when the Who performed the work in its entirety in New York, becoming the first rock group to play the hallowed Metropolitan Opera House.

The San Francisco powerhouse agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners takes as its corporate mantra "art serving capitalism." But I wonder if it shouldn't be the other way around? I give you -- with a plate of chocolate chip cookies -- "Battle for Milkquarious," a 20-minute Web-only "rock opera" by GSP featuring the exploits of White Gold, the doofus-y guitar-strutter/pitchman for the California Milk Processor Board (the "Got Milk?" people). We met White Gold in previous commercials.

Even before glasnost, a new voice of intellectual freedom in the Soviet Union was being heard. The sound of that voice is very evident in "Junon and Avos--The Hope," the first Russian rock opera, which was a smash hit in 1981 at Moscow's Lenin Komsomol Theater, and opened last weekend at Manhattan's City Center.

In 1969 the rock opera "Tommy" was a phenomenon. In 1987 it is a period curiosity. Much of its original power lay in its novelty as an art form, but much of its appeal today relies on nostalgia, as can be seen in the current production at Saddleback College. The rock still rolls, but the opera limps. "Tommy" has a place in rock history as the ground-breaking effort by the British rock band the Who to produce an album that told a story through the musical idiom of the day.

Theater is being there. It was exciting to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Tommy" with the Who at the Universal Amphitheatre Thursday night--as much for the audience as for the show. I know: It is the normal state of affairs at a rock concert that the crowd seethes and bubbles and never sits down for long.

No stars were going to be made Friday. But they lined up anyway--singers and actors, students and bankers. Carrying sheet music, resumes and the occasional guitar, hundreds of twentysomethings lined up in Burbank for the first of two days of auditions for "Rent," the rock opera that took Broadway by storm last year. Inspired by Puccini's "La Boheme," but set among aspiring artists in the East Village, "Rent" won Tony awards for best musical, book and score.

Even at a benefit concert like Thursday's star-studded performance of "Tommy," put on by the Who at the Universal Amphitheatre, it's easy to find cynics. Mindful of the current Who tour's controversial brewery sponsorship, one wag suggested that maybe the rock opera's troubled title character could appear in a beer commercial--as in, maybe, "That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure can knock 'em back!" Cheap shot. Uncalled for. Irascible.

The San Francisco powerhouse agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners takes as its corporate mantra "art serving capitalism." But I wonder if it shouldn't be the other way around? I give you -- with a plate of chocolate chip cookies -- "Battle for Milkquarious," a 20-minute Web-only "rock opera" by GSP featuring the exploits of White Gold, the doofus-y guitar-strutter/pitchman for the California Milk Processor Board (the "Got Milk?" people). We met White Gold in previous commercials.

Regarding the piece on the rock opera "American Idiot": ["From 'Idiot' to Opera," Sept. 13] All those talented people lending their voices do not compare to one Billie Joe Armstrong, but this is not about Green Day. This is a tribute to their work through the eyes of one man, Michael Mayer. As with "21st Century Breakdown," this is a case of platinum ideas served on a silver platter. I believe its success is due to the fact that the "American Idiot" phenomenon was pulled from mass media before its time and has left the public thirsty for more.

Michael Mayer tried to contain his growing frustration. For more than nine hours at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre over two recent afternoons, Mayer's creative group was laboring to fix the glitches that were making a mess of a key sequence in the world premiere rock opera "American Idiot." Progress was fleeting. For the two days of technical rehearsals, director Mayer and his team were stuck revising just three minutes of the show -- an elaborate fantasy dance passage in the adaptation of the pop-punk band Green Day's Grammy-winning 2004 album of the same name.

Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the target of comedians' jokes since his arrest and impeachment, is getting in on the laughs with Chicago's famed Second City group. The former governor will participate in Saturday's evening performance of "Rod Blagojevich Superstar," his spokesman Glenn Selig said Tuesday. The show is a takeoff on the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" and follows Blagojevich's rise and fall. Its run was supposed to end June 14, but the improvisational comedy group extended performances to Aug. 9 because of its popularity.

It's anyone's guess whether "Lovelace: A Rock Opera," Anna Waronker and Charlotte Caffey's urgent, tuneful elegy for the star of "Deep Throat," can rival that porn landmark's reach. However, we are undeniably watching something original, at once refined and electrifying. This sense of discovery drives "Lovelace," based on a concept by Jeffery Leonard Bowman, who supplied some of the lyrics. Schematically, it echoes many a popera predecessor -- "Tommy," "Blood Brothers," pick a Lloyd Webber.

In 1972, a newlywed named Linda Boreman spent six days in Florida making a low-budget porn film about a woman who can't orgasm. The director was a salon owner who decided to make blue movies after hearing his female customers complain about their husbands' bedroom techniques. The male lead had been part of the lighting crew until the producers realized they couldn't find anyone else.

Last week came word that a musical was being developed based on the slash-fest "American Psycho." This week brings news about a new rock musical revolving around "Deep Throat" -- and we're not talking Watergate here. For those too young -- or too pure -- to remember, "Deep Throat" was a 1972 film that, depending on whom you talk to, may or may not have been the most financially successful porn movie of all time. But it definitely turned its star, Linda Lovelace, into a household name.

Manchester, England Seb HUNTER'S "Rock Me Amadeus" hooked me the moment I opened it in a Manchester bookshop and saw its epigraph, a quote from Elvis: "I don't know anything about music. In my line, you don't have to." Later in the book, when Hunter gets around to opera, this good-natured British rock journalist -- hoping to get a handle on Handel and classical music in general -- likens Wagner to U2 playing Meat Loaf at Neverland.

Hosanna or heresy? Jesus Christ, the Superstar that is, makes his post-Resurrection debut on a Moscow stage in a black leather jacket, straddling a motorcycle borrowed from the local Soviet militia. The scene could hardly be considered orthodox, either politically or religiously, in the Moscow of old.

Will 2008 go down as the year of the rock musical? Considering the success of recent local productions such as "Hair" and "Evel Knievel: The Rock Opera," it comes as no surprise that yet another rock extravaganza rolls out this week. Featuring David Bowie-inspired '70s-era glam rock, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" opens Friday at the Met Theatre in Hollywood. The plot follows a young East German boy who falls in love with a U.S. soldier.

It's the oldest story in the world: Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl joins radical student organization hellbent on ending the Vietnam War, boy's passion devolves into paranoia, boy returns to work in a Liverpool shipyard. Months pass before they simultaneously arrive at a wholly unoriginal yet heartwarming conclusion: All You Need, it turns out, Is Love.