Las Vegas edition of ‘Rock of Ages’ musical opening at The Venetian

Such a tribute didn’t seem likely when "Rock of Ages" tire-kicked Las Vegas in a 2006 test run at the Flamingo. But that changed when the jokey "jukebox" pastiche of ’80s rock songs became a Broadway hit in 2009.

Now, director Kristin Hanggi, choreographer Kelly Devine and music supervisor David Gibbs are back to ready a new Las Vegas edition for a "soft opening" Tuesday (the official opening-night party is Jan. 5).

The three took time to talk about Mr. Big, Tom Cruise and other topics that came up along the six-year journey from Vegas to Vegas.

Then and Now

The musical workshopped in a Los Angeles nightclub, then tested the waters at the Flamingo with a two-week run in 2006.

But Toni Braxton ended up at the Flamingo. "Rock" continued its journey to an off-Broadway theater in 2008, then jumped to Broadway the next year.

Hanggi: When we were first developing "Rock of Ages," we always thought it was going to be a Vegas show. … It just came together when we got off-Broadway. It came together and it streamlined and the team got real tight. It’s the story of learning by doing it so many times.

Gibbs: There was just this thing where you could kind of feel like ’80s music might be coming back. Journey and Whitesnake were really starting to come onto people’s radar. It takes about 20 years.

Hanggi: "Rock of Ages" hit New York at the peak of the recession. … It was something that came into the mainstream when people needed to feel good. … I’ve never felt like we had to work hard to get our audience. There’s something about the magic of the music of this era that I think makes you want to party.

Cruise Control

Last summer’s movie adaptation was a mixed blessing. It raised brand awareness for the musical, but stiffed at the box office, earning about $56 million against a $75 million budget.

But the stage version is able to distance itself from the movie, thanks to numerous story changes and song swaps.

Hanggi: If you only saw the movie, you’re likely to be surprised how fun and playful and interactive this show is. We have lots of different songs, too, that weren’t in the movie.

Devine: I just wanted (the movie) to be great, truly. It’s a shame it didn’t do as well as it could have, but it doesn’t hurt to have Tom Cruise give a great performance in a movie people are talking about all the time. Good or bad.

The movie’s reviews were mixed, but most critics did line up behind Cruise’s turn as Stacee Jaxx, an ’80s rock god in the mold of Axl Rose or Bret Michaels.

Did Cruise’s more nuanced – and ultimately lik able – version of Jaxx cause the Broadway show to reconsider their more cutout version of the character?

Hanggi: The stage show is very archetypal. So in ours, Stacee Jaxx is the bad guy, but he’s like delicious bad. You love hating him. He’s that kind of character where, when he gets his comeuppance, it’s really fun and funny for the audience.

Gibbs: That character has made me laugh since Day One. He’s just funny.

Hanggi: (When casting Jaxx) I think we’re always looking for the guy who makes that feeling for the ladies, like, "Oh, hello, welcome!" … But he’s enough of a douche bag we can laugh at him the entire time and understand why he’s so cocky his band hates him.

Devine: If you do your ’80s research, there are interviews with major rock stars from that time that were just – I don’t know if they’d been on the road too long or were high or all of the above – but some of those interviews were almost incoherent. They’re hysterical. "Yeah man, I just live rock." That’s all you get out of them.

I Wanna Rock

Most of the Las Vegas cast members are in their early 20s, so their encounters with Styx’s "Renegade" or Poison’s "Nothin’ But a Good Time" are more likely to come in TV commercials or sports stadiums.

Gibbs: I think there’s something awesome (about the fact) that they don’t know the songs. When these songs were sung, they were sung by guys who were 23, 24, 25 years old. There’s a sort of exuberance and life that they bring to it. Some of those kids (in the cast) are so young, I brought my Walkman in. "This is how your parents listened to music, on a cassette tape." They are discovering this music for the first time, a lot of them.

Devine: I think they do truly appreciate the music. They might not have the same memories or connections to it, but I think they appreciate the sound and the songs, the way I appreciate my mom’s most awesome pair of bell-bottoms that she wore in the ’70s. … I think as a performer it’s a fun show to be in, because you are so interactive with the audience and they get a really great response night after night. It’s like a drug.

Hanggi: It’s as close as some of them will get to being a rock star. Women come up to them and ask them to sign their body parts.

The Right Tone

"Rock of Ages" keeps the audience in on the joke. Its narrator speaks directly to the audience and at one point laments that he wanted to be in a show with "deep and complex characters and a challenging plot, but instead I got poop jokes and Whitesnake songs."

Yet most of the ’80s rockers with songs licensed for the show have endorsed it; the creators manage to celebrate them as they spoof them. How do they walk this fine line?

Hanggi: We use Mr. Big in the show, right? And you kind of have to chuckle when you talk about Mr. Big. But they had some great songs. The one we use in our show ("To Be With You"), it’s killer. So many of the songs we have chosen, you can’t believe they’re being presented in a musical theater context. That alone is kind of funny. But the show has always had real heart. And I think because it has real heart and it’s using songs that actually are all great songs, that’s how we’ve walked that balance.

Devine: You can manipulate the use of the songs to the moments they’re in. They’re not being sung out of context.

Gibbs: There’s something very respectful about them. We’ve deconstructed songs like the Poison song ("Every Rose Has Its Thorn"). Bret Michaels loves that version (and says) "I wish I’d done that." That made us feel good.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.