“Camp Jabberwocky Presents: Wock of Ages,” read the program cover for the camp’s action-packed tribute to Rock of Ages, the Broadway musical adapted for the movies in 2012.
With a cast of more than 100, multiple scene locations, elaborate props and costumes and plenty of songs, the extravaganza drew standing-room-only crowds to the Camp Jabberwocky studio Friday and Saturday nights, with dozens more audience members clustering outside on the porch.
While there’s a little rock and roll in every Jabberwocky show — even breakfast at the camp is eaten to the sound of music by Queen, Aerosmith and other hitmakers — this over-the-top celebration of late-1980s bands had the camper-counselor cast and crew letting loose with the joyous freedom that only rock can bring.
As in the original show, the romance of aspiring performers Sherri (played by longtime camper Faith Carter, with counselor Sherri Dobson in the added role of Sherri’s sister) and Drew (camper Juan Silva) is both complicated and enlivened by an anti-rock music campaign spearheaded by the Mayor (camper Jake Frommeyer) and His Evil Wife, Kathleen (Kate Traquina).
Camper Susan Harrington, a fan favorite who co-starred in the 1999 documentary How’s Your News, swaggered like a tyrant in the role of debauched lead singer Stacee Jaxx (played by Tom Cruise in the film), firing off lines like “Ditch the broad!” and “Bring me my microphone right away!”
Adapting the original story is part of the fun of a Jabberwocky musical, where many roles are doubled and even tripled (there were nine Beastie Boys in the camp production) to make sure everyone gets time on stage — and that it’s a show for all ages.
For instance: Director Mike Leòn, who has volunteered summers at the camp for years during vacations from his advertising work off-Island, transformed the story’s Venus Club into a cowboy-themed bar called Coyote Ugly.
It was still a gentlemen’s club — the bouncer tossed out a patron for not saying please or thank you — but everybody danced with their (Western-style) clothes on.
And there is always lots of dancing in a Jabberwocky show, as well as solo and ensemble musical numbers that send the audience into ecstasies of applause.
Among the Wock of Ages standouts were I Love Rock & Roll, Paradise City and a show-stopping Pour Some Sugar On Me, complete with dancing girls and sugar-box props.
The show also forayed into gospel and hip-hop, with camper Myles Brawn-Husband spitting Beastie Boy bars that had the audience cheering.
The original Rock of Ages is famous for breaking the fourth wall between performers and spectators — in Wock of Ages, a character gets arrested for it.
But camp session directors Jojo Romero de Slavy and Kristen (Sully) Sullivan were permitted to remain at large in their dual role as the narrators, Mojo and Gully.
Ms. de Slavy also choreographed the dance numbers. Always a highlight of the July musicals, this year’s dances literally defied gravity, with Shirley Lewis lifted high above the stage by a group of bare-chested male counselors in tights and Sky Ward dangling in a harness from the ceiling.
The show’s live music was performed by the Jason Lopes Experience, a group of musician volunteers who appeared as a 1980s band, entering together in shaggy wigs and headbands.
The rest of the company crowded onstage together for the final ensemble number — Don’t Stop Believin’ — with even Ms. Sullivan’s three-year-old son singing along from Mr. Silva’s lap.
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Sunday morning, the camp community gathered again, along with donors and media, for a formal ribbon cutting to celebrate the new main cabin.
Renovated, expanded and winterized by South Mountain Company and its subcontractors, the main cabin is where campers and counselors gather for meals and other activities.
Starting this fall, the main cabin will also be available in the off-season to local nonprofits like Island Grown Initiative, which is already making plans for the space, camp development director Kelsey Cosby told the group.
John Lamb, whose mother Helen (Hellcat) Lamb founded the camp more than 60 years ago, also spoke before Ms. Carter and Mr. Brawn-Husband jointly cut the ceremonial ribbon.
Like Ms. Cosby and camp director Liza Gallagher, whose remarks traced the history of the main cabin back to 1962, Mr. Lamb directly thanked his listeners for their support of Camp Jabberwocky.
“One of Hellcat’s great fears was that when she died, camp would not continue,” said Mr. Lamb, who came up with the Camp Jabberwocky name after its founding as the Martha’s Vineyard Cerebral Palsy Camp.
“She died eight years ago, and camp is better than ever and more people are being served,” he said.
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