Stick it to the man: My thoughts on School of Rock

I saw the movie School of Rock back in 2004 and enjoyed it at the time. I saw it again about 10 years later with my kids and still thought it was a lot of fun. I had no idea it would be turned into a musical and wasn't sure what to expect from it. However, I was really impressed!

This past weekend, my husband, kids and I saw School of Rock at the National Theatre in DC. It was a surprise for the kids and my oldest figured it out after a while. My younger two thought we were seeing a movie. We got the tickets through TodayTix back when they had their Cyber Monday sales. The only drawback is that you don't get to pick your exact seats. They had us over on the far right of the orchestra section. We could see, but with some heads blocking our view, it was hard to get in the full stage.

My husband forgot he wasn't seeing Newsies :)

Here are my thoughts:

*I was surprised at the amount of swearing with kids around, both in the show and in the audience. I feel like the stage production was marketed as being family friendly, so I didn't see that coming.

*I enjoyed the music. Some of the songs were from the movie and some were written for the musical. Out of the new songs, I especially liked "If Only You Would Listen," "Time to Play," and "Stick It to the Man."

*While I love that they played "Edge of Seventeen" at the bar, Rosalie's song afterward ("Where Did the Rock Go?") felt kind of slow.

*The kids were fantastic! They had lots of energy and talent, great voices, and were funny. Billy said my favorite line from the movie: "You're tacky and I hate you." The girl who played Summer was adorable!

*The ensemble cast was strong, but it got confusing when some people played three different roles.

*We had an understudy for Dewey, Liam Fennecken. He did a great job and fit the part well. He was very likable and used a lot of physical comedy.

*The set was cool. There were a lot of different parts to it that moved around nicely to fit each scene.

A glimpse of the classroom, from The New York Times

*There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Of course, some of those went over my kids' heads. I especially love that Dewey improvised a line about the government shutdown.

*At one point, Billy brought out a costume he designed and the mannequin was wearing a Rocky Horror shirt! :)

*The ending was slightly different, but it was still good. I would have not noticed the difference if my husband hadn't pointed it out.

*My daughter had the best time and was rockin' out by the end. She said it's her favorite musical now.

Overall,  it was a great show that my entire family enjoyed. It was hard not to clap along with the music! I recommend it for a fun day or evening out when it comes to your town.