Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival No. 52 offers a trip to ‘Paradise’

by Judith Hruz

Editor

Over five decades after Sherwood High School’s first Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival wowed its audience with a line-up of singing, dancing and musical artistry, the event is still taking show-goers to paradise.

The popular production – the 52^nd show – will be held for two weekends, starting at 7:30 p.m. March 1 and 2 and 2 p.m. March 3 and again at 7:30 p.m. March 8 and 9 and 2 p.m. March 10 in Sherwood’s Ertzman Theatre.

This year’s theme is “Paradise” and the show will open with “Rockin’ The Paradise” by Styx and close with “Two Tickets to Paradise” by Eddie Money.

Music teacher Alex Silverbook, an accomplished musician, is directing the show for the 24^th year. This year he is joined by choral director Emily Chu.

“I am happy to welcome our new choral director, Emily Chu, to our Sherwood music family,” Silverbook said.

Chu is a graduate of the University of Maryland and taught elementary school music in the county for a year and half before coming to Sherwood High School this year.

Silverbook said Chu “has been nothing but amazing in her role for the first time as a director of Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival. We are having so much fun and the two of us make a fabulous team. She is not only a fabulous musician and educator, but she is also an amazing, kind and fun person to be around. The students and school are lucky to have her as a Sherwood Warrior.”

Between the band, vocalists, cast members, technical crew and dance team, some 300 students are involved in our show.

“One thing that is very special about our show is that it unifies so many walks of life in our school,” Silverbook said.

This year’s show has songs that range from the 1950’s all the way up to the mid 2000’s.

“We hit several genres of music, such as Classic Rock, New Age Rock, R&B, Funk, Soul and even some Latin and Country music this year,” Silverbook said. “It is a tradition that we perform several genres of music. The students learn about a lot of music that they wouldn’t typically listen to. Having them learn songs from such a diverse group of musicians and artists such as Bill Withers, Dionne Warwick, Carol King, Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan and more brings our students a valuable and comprehensive educational experience.

“Not only learning to perform in various styles, whether it be vocally, as an instrumentalist, or through movement and dance,  but to understand the social and cultural implications these songs have had throughout history,” he added. “These songs all tell a story and connect to people in meaningful ways. So being able to revive these songs and share them with a wide variety of age groups and cultures in our audience is really special … bringing a deeper meaning to us as performers. To me, that’s what it’s really about. It’s about teaching our students the real power of music, the meaningful impact this music has had culturally and socially, and allowing our students to use their talents to connect to people and bring our community together.”

Silverbook said tickets for the performances sold out nearly as soon as they went on sale, “which shows that after 52 years, our show is still going strong in our community.”