Oscar E Moore

Be prepared.  Be prepared to be swayed into believing that the Juke Box Musical isn’t dead.  It is alive and flourishing at The Midtown Theater where POWER BALLADZ is rocking the rafters with three amazing performers with incredible voices and enough energy to power the East and West Coast.  They are Dieter Bierbrauer, Mary Mossberg and Scott Richard Foster.

They are purely and simply sensational.  Dieter with his long golden locks and sly grin, Scott with his goofy antics and the beautiful Mary who sits in the audience in her Sarah Palin inspired suit until recognized by our two heroes as the girl that Dieter never got to take to the prom and immediately is coaxed into joining them on stage only to let her hair down and change into black leather and rock it out with the both of them.  That’s the very slight plot courtesy of Dan Nycklemoe, Peter Rothstein and Mike Todaro.

But who needs a plot when you can get magnificent renditions of some of the best rock anthems of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s – Here I Go Again (Whitesnake), Wanted Dead or Alive (Bon Jovi), Wind of Change (Scorpions), Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), We Are the Champions (Queen) and Paradise City (Guns and Roses) to name but a few of the songs that drive the audience wild.

An audience that looks like Spring Break in South Beach.  With their parents.  Singing along and having the time of the lives.  After all, there are the songs first and foremost and better still, beer and tequila shots available.  Chicken wings and other noshes too.  Not to mention the production values which are terrific.

A rock concert right in midtown Manhattan, directed to pitch perfect perfection by Mike Todaro.  Two large video screens.  Incredible lighting effects.  A fog machine.  Zippo lighters.  Big hair.  And a great rock band with Karen Dryer on keyboard, Mark Vanderpoel on bass, Brad Carbone on drums and Sean Driscoll and Jason Bozzi doing some fanciful acoustic guitar strumming.  It’s a blast from start to finish and then some.

After the knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark performance audience members are invited to perform on stage with the band to sing – karaoke style – and release their inner rock star dreams.  It’s quite an event.

www.powerballadz.com             Photo:  Carol Rosegg

Tags:   Dieter Bierbrauer · Mary Mossberg · Mike Todaro · Peter Rothstein · Scott Richard FosterNo Comments