Kelly Van Oosbree helms a banger for the PACE Center’s summer show.

It’s been 20 years since the jukebox musical Rock of Ages opened in LA. And while the schlock-rock soundtrack it rides on hasn’t aged particularly well, this new production at the Parker PACE Center has a lot going for it.

I hope the residents of Parker and surrounding areas appreciate the level of quality the city has invested in here. Parker Arts hired Nacy Evans Begley’s Veritas Productions to put it together, and Veritas wisely hired Kelly Van Oosbree to direct and choreograph. She, in turn, led an extraordinary, mostly local cast and creative team to bring it on home.

First impressions come from the impressive Brian Mallgrave set — ushering us into the interior of The Bourbon Room on Sunset Strip where most of the action takes place. The prolific set master clearly worked closely with Lighting Designer Brett Maughan to incorporate all kinds of neat lighting elements into the stage structures. Featuring famous signs from Sunset along with inventive palm tree projections and built-in lights on the stage riser, the house band Arsenal is positioned up center instead of in a pit.

Audio Designer Curt Behm deserves huge props for dialing in the sound impeccably — every bit of song is easy to hear, with the band suitably muted but still loud enough to project the rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic. Conducted by local favorite Trent Hines (also on keys), the band is led by standout guitarist Jason Tyler Vaughn. Music Director Tanner Kelly pulls it all together nicely. (It’s been a busy summer for him; his excellent production of Something Rotten ran through today at Conifer’s StageDoor Theater.)

Benjamin Kaan as Drew and Kayleigh Bernier as Sherrie in ‘Rock of Ages.’ | Photo: RDGPhotography

The story itself is a lightweight tale about a boy, a girl, a dream, a few villains and a budding romance — all draped precariously on a lineup of ’80s hits ranging from “The Final Countdown” and “Too Much Time on My Hands” to “Wanted Dead or Alive” and, of course, “Don’t Stop Believin’.” We’re led through the whole mess by Lonny (Nick Madson), ostensibly the GM of The Bourbon Room music bar, who engages the audience with all kinds of asides. These include comments on the sketchy plot itself as well as pop-ins to interject comments between other characters’ lines. Madson handles it all quite well, flitting between his role as Lonny and the audience ombudsman.

Front and center is rock-star wannabe Drew Boley (Benjamin Kaan), a busboy/schlub at the Bourbon, when — guess what? — his soul mate just lands in town from Kansas with the same dream. This is Sherrie Christian (you can see where this is going song-wise), played with tremendous poise by Kayleigh Bernier. She and Kaan both have tremendous singing voices, allowing them to hit all those hair-band highs required by the score.

Costume Designer Nikkie Harrison has an absolute field day with this show, starting with Sherrie, who she decks out with a fantastic array of looks that take her from suitcase-clutching ingenue to her inevitable turn as a stripper when she gets down on her luck. While jeans and rock tees are good for the likes of Drew and Lonny, Harrison piles on the hits with the female players — making me wonder how she pulled it all together.

Also key are wigs, which Debbie Spaur mostly nails. I thought Lonny’s mullet looked a bit too over the top, and Drew looked so much like Noel Fielding from The Great British Bake Off with his long black wig that I kept expecting him to start making dumb jokes about ganache. (It also obscured his face a good deal.)

As club owner Dennis Dupree, Carter Edward Smith is a ton of fun as the somewhat clueless hippie somehow running the show. Hair and costume for him are also on the cartoonish side, but it matches his low-key character.

Another impressive element comes from the three female ensemble dancers — an exceptional trio that included Alex Jacobsen, Heather McClain and Shelby Varra. They seemed to be everywhere at once, all perfectly synched with boundless energy and smart, sexy costumes. Logan Travers, Trevor Targowski and Pierre Andrew’ McNair rounded out the ensemble, with McNair also portraying the pushover of a mayor and a pushy record producer.

Sherrie turned stripper in ‘Rock of Ages.’ | Photo: RDGPhotography

Cue the villains

While Drew and Sherrie flirt and plan their (hopefully) meteoric rise in the rock world, dark clouds gather when German developers show up and convince the mayor to somehow raze the sex, drugs & rock ‘n’ roll section of the Sunset Strip and put up “clean living” stuff like a Foot Locker. These are Hertz and Franz Klinemann, a father-son duo imbuing every German stereotype. Hertz (Charlie Schmidt) is trying to get his son (Cole Emarine) to, ahem, harden his heart to the people on the Strip and earn his birthright as an asshole. But city planner Regina (Shannon Foley) goes rogue, organizes protests against the project and ultimately wins the heart of the flamboyantly not-gay Franze.

This subplot isn’t particularly interesting, but Foley and Emarine make the most of it, carving out two superb comic performances amid everything else going on. The Franz character is ridiculous, and Emarine pushes it all the way with a wild series of vocal sputterings and high-pitched squeals along with a creative number of acrobatic exit flourishes.

The other bad guy is Stacee Jaxx (Joshua Bess), the lead singer of Arsenal who’s breaking up the band. Dennis convinces him to do their final gig at the Bourbon, and Jaxx zeroes in on Sherrie the moment he walks in the place. Bess — a Littleton native who’s returned to the Colorado stage amid a successful stage career in New York — is a spot-on Stacee Jaxx who truly rocks his shaggy blond wig and has the pipes to convincingly play a Dee Synder-type with a dark side.

When Sherrie takes up stripper work as the dream fades, we’re also treated to the character of Mother (ThurZday), who runs the Venus club. Playing the typical tough madame with a heart of gold, ThurZday is a great addition to the cast who also serves up a great set of pipes.

‘Rock of Ages’ runs through July 20 at the Parker PACE Center. | Photo: RDGPhotography

Van Oosbree, the artistic director at Brighton’s Platte Valley Theatre Arts who directs and choreographs shows all around Colorado, is at the top of her game here. The choreography is fairly straight-up, but it’s clearly very, very well-rehearsed — with nary a step out of place on the second night of the run. There are a great many nice little touches throughout the show that make it a cut above the typical local musical. One of these is the riot scene done in at the top of Act II. Done in slo-mo with strobe lighting, it’s a clever bit that somehow makes mob violence and over-aggressive policing quite funny.

Other than some of the wigs, my only quibble was with some dead spots between scenes where the music ended and there were noticeable gaps before the action resumed. These are spaces I would think would be covered by a music bed or simply a quicker scene change, but they stood out in an otherwise tight production.

It’s been a few years since I saw this show as a touring Broadway production at the Denver Center, and I’d forgotten how raunchy it is throughout. There’s a decent amount of sex and sexual innuendo as well as an unfortunate number of scatological jokes that don’t add much other than groans from the audience. As such, I wouldn’t bring kids under 13 or 14 to this one. For everyone else — especially fans of ’80s rock and those who lived through the era like me, it’s a particularly well-done production and probably the best I’ve seen at PACE.

From left: Benjamin Kaan, Carter Edward Smith and Nick Madson in ‘Rock of Ages.’ | Photo: RDGPhotography