"School Of Rock" by Gatepost Theatre Company.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

For anyone who has seen this musical before, you'll know what an amazing vehicle this is for adult actors, as well as younger actors, and it also asks a lot from both. Gatepost inject the EFF into FUN and we all overdose on it.

Dewey Finn, an out-of-work rock singer and guitarist who pretends to be a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school after he receives a phone call asking for Ned Schneebly, whose apartment he is crashing at, asking for Ned to fill in as a supply teacher. He sees a chance to earn some money to pay his rent and passes himself of as Ned.

After identifying the musical talent in his students, Dewey forms a band of fifth-graders, in an attempt to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands contest. The musical play is based on the film of the same name from 2003 with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Glenn Slater. The musical is also renowned for being only one of a very few musicals where the young actors play their own instruments on stage.

The never ending talent some of these kids have is ridiculous. They reminded me of my musical self at school; no one but no one could play rock triangle like I could, I was even upgraded to rock tambourine and had a solo when we performed "You Shook Me All Night Long", the great AC/DC classic. Anyway, I digress.....

Dewey Finn is played by Christopher Collington, I couldn't really imagine anyone else playing this part apart from Chris. Dewey is wild, desperate, naive, dull-witted, and somewhat more childish than his students. To be fair, in real life, only one of those adjectives I would label Chris with. Here is a man who is so comfortable on stage that he can ad-lib and still make it sound as if it is part of the script without the audience knowing any different.

Chris is Mr Entertainment. He can sing, he can act, he can perform comedy and he plays rock guitar - did I miss out dancing? Ah yes I did - that was intentional. It is a credit to the young actors that they didn't react to the additional lines and actions Chris included; true professionals. This is a role that will be remembered by a lot of people for a very long time, and rightly so. A custom made vehicle for Chris' many talents.

Ned Schneebly, Dewey's long time friend and former No Vacancies bandmate, is played by Gary Heap. Ned is very easily manipulated and tends to allow people to walk all over him—especially his girlfriend, Patty. He still loves rock and roll music but is held down by Patty. He is a substitute teacher and is impersonated by Dewey at Horace Green. I love the scene where "the worm turns" and Ned stands up to Patty. There's also another scene after this that also gets a massive reaction from the crowd, but I'll leave you discover what that is!

Jude Cliffman plays Ned's overbearing girlfriend, Patty Di Marco. Patty is very demanding and domineering and doesn't allow Ned to make any decisions for himself. She hates Dewey and wants him out of the apartment and out of her and Ned's lives. You can tell that both Gary and Jude loved these roles because the chemistry is so strong; you could almost taste the saccharin sweetness between Ned and patty-cakes.

The Principal of Horace Green Prep School is Rosalie Mullins, played here by Lottie Lodge. Rosalie is uptight and traditional at school. However, she feels an intense amount of pressure from work, which is what causes her to be so high strung. She has a secret love of rock and roll music and longs to be as carefree as she once was. One of my favourite scenes in this show is when Dewey asks Rosalie out for a coffee and they end up at a bar. Dewey has found out that Rosalie is a big fan of Stevie Nicks so uses that as leverage to get permission for the "field trip". The timing of the comedy, with the Stevie Nicks song and both actors was just a dream to see.

Bella Radford plays Summer, a high-achieving girl who hates nonsense. Initially, she absolutely despises Dewey, but comes to love the band—or, perhaps, the power that comes with it—and is willing to do anything to see it achieve. Summer is one of the brightest students at Horace Green, as shown by the fact that she has significantly more gold stars on the achievement board than any of her peers. Through the show, she is convinced that winning the "Battle of the Bands" will look good on her college application. Like every other young actor on that stage, she looked like she was having a ball sticking it to the man with such attitude.

Tomika is played by Isobelle Walker. Tomika is shy and doesn't speak to anyone at school, and feels as though she's not as intelligent as the other students. However, it turns out that she is a highly gifted singer, and becomes the secondary singer in "School of Rock", behind only Dewey. When she finally reveals this musical talent, the audience were in absolute silence, until afterwards. That voice gave me tingles and the hairs on my arm stood up. She is adopted by two men who are a couple, played by Jack Lawrence and Jon Dawkins.

Zack is played by Charlie Rogers. Zack is the son of an uptight businessman with no time for his children. Because of that, Zack keeps a great deal bottled inside and has issues with being too stiff with his guitar playing at first. However, Dewey discovers that Zack is actually a musical prodigy, as shown when Zack writes the band's anthem, "Teacher's Pet", after only a month or so of playing rock music. Charlie is a rock star in the making the way he handles that axe.

Lawrence is played by Harrison Ince. Lawrence is an unconfident boy, and is also gluten intolerant. He initially believes that he isn't cool enough to be a part of the band, but Dewey is able to convince him that he's amazing. At the show's beginning, Lawrence's only friend is Tomika, but he doesn't think she counts because she never talks. He's a very imaginative keyboard player, and talented at improvising, so Harrison would be the perfect actor to play this role.

Freddy, the drummer, is played by Liam Farrant. Freddy is a rambunctious boy, as shown when he repeatedly disrupts the music class with part of the drum kit. He is constantly told he isn't intelligent—by both his own father and Summer—but Freddy and Dewey both think that he's intelligent in a different way, and that Freddy's father just doesn't see that. If I could play any instrument apart from the saxophone or guitar, it would be the drums and Liam is now my hero.

Katie is played by Madie Wheatcroft. Katie is a quiet, serious girl who keeps mostly to herself. She plays the cello at school but is quick to pick up the bass at Dewey's encouragement. She is stone-faced when she plays, and takes her instrument and the band very seriously, although not as much as Summer takes managing. I imagine that the bass guitar is not easy to play but Madie made it look easy, and what a great sound she gets from that instrument.

Shonelle is played by Felicity Holman. Shonelle and Marcy, played by Isla Farrell, are quieter girls who tend to blend into the background. They are "School of Rock"s backup singers, and also talented dancers. Dewey tells their parents that they have the voices of angels. And boy do they make the most of the choreography as well.

Billy is played by Teddy Osborn. Billy is a flamboyant boy with a love of style and fashion magazines. He is disgusted with Dewey's outfit choices, and how no one else in the band shares his artistic vision, but is confident in his styling choices regardless. Billy comes from a long line of football players, and his father wants him to be one as well, but Billy has absolutely no interest in doing so, opting to read Vogue than swot up on the soccer scores and teams. A lovely fun character that gave Teddy some wonderful comic scenes, especially with his design for Dewey's stage outfit.

Mason is played by Jake Bavin. Mason is a super-smart, nerdy, tech-savvy boy who designs all the lighting and special effects for the band using his laptop.

Jane, on security, is played by Sally Elliott, Sophie, one of the band's roadies, is played by La Kayah Jassey. Madison, the other roadie, is played by Scarlett Dunn.

The classmate ensemble consist of Esmie Smith-Cockayne, Brooke Foxhall, Gracie Smith and Joseph Ross.

The adult ensemble who play everything from No Vacancies band members, teachers, adults and everything else needed to be played by an adult are, Luke Grainger, who gets to show off that great bluesy voice of his, Rachelle Bragg, Jordan Neary, Jack Lawrence, Ellie Heap, Steve Fowkes, Jon Dawkins, Ben Gray, Sarah Knight and Kiah Smith.

Directed by Christopher Collington; I don't really need to say more. The younger actors obviously love taking direction from this man because they have repaid him with immeasurable talent on display on stage. The other actors have great respect for a man who does a job like this with such aplomb. He has funny bones, on and off stage. He's a dream interviewee and knows how to extract the best from his cast and crew. Nuff said and a gold star.

I loved the detailed uniforms and costumes in "School Of Rock", Rachelle Bragg really has something to brag about in this department and the gold stars in this department are richly deserved.

Mark Green's Set Design really made you feel that you were in school with the desks, old style blackboard, teacher's desk as well as Ned and Patty's apartment, plus the performance areas for the bands. great sets and brilliant props, sourced by Jude Cliffman and Sarah Knight. Gold stars all round!

Musical Director is Martin Lewis, no not that one! Another supreme professional who, when you see his name in the programme will ensure that you're going to get the best musical backing. The band, George Parkinson, Chris Loach, Rob Holsman, Matt Barks and Jack Helan, even made an appearance at the end on stage to receive their due respect. Gold stars all round again.

There are some brilliant songs to this soundtrack, songs that you would not expect to come from the pen of Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Such earworms as "Time To Play", "School Of Rock", the brilliantly narcissistic "I'm Too Hot For You" and of course "Stick It To The Man". I know that Lord Lloyd-Webber is aware of this production, but what a shame he can't travel North to see what an incredible job this group have done of his work. I'd even pay for his ticket for him to see it.

Choreographed by Lottie Lodge. You can see the work put into those dance routines by the cast. They hit every beat, every turn as a troupe, making this one of the slickest choreographed shows for a young cast. The opening of Act Two was breath-takingly good, especially as the opening featured all of the younger actors. Multi gold stars.

The Lighting Design by Stephen Greatorex made you feel that you were somewhere like Rock City. the new lights at the Duchess, in addition to the lights that were brought in for the show makes this a spectacular lighting display. Teamed with the dry ice, you could be mistaken for being in a very different venue. Loads of gold stars.

Sound Design by Harry Greatorex was 99.9% perfect. I only spotted one missed mic cue, and for The Duchess that is excellent. I had expected it to be a loud sound design, probably due to the nature of the music, but it wasn't and was pitched just right. I wouldn't even have minded it being a bit louder, especially on the keyboard solos by Harrison. I often have a bit of a moan about the sound at the Duchess, even though I know that you have to part octopus to get every slider in the right position, but I have no issues with the sound tonight. More gold stars.

With the size of the cast I imagine that the stage manager, John Cliff needed a lemonade of three after the show. He also deserves a gold star.

I knew that I would be in for a long review of this show because of the quality of the show and of the actors. I also knew that I would be on my feet at the end. No need for Mystic Meg to predict either for me, it was a given in my opinion on both accounts.

Andrew Lloyd Webber would have been proud of this cast, but apart from the parents of these young stars, I think the person most proud would have been Christopher Collington, seeing what a massive success this show has been.

"School Of Rock" will be kept in detention at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton only until Saturday 16 September. And if you didn't manage to get a ticket this week, then you must do better next time - no gold stars for you!!