Rock Musicals

This is definitely not your grandparents' song-and-dance scene (unless your grandparents are Pete Townshend and Olivia Newton-John). Musicals can deliver all the raw passion and sonic slam of rock 'n' roll and stir your emotions up to that same kind of fever pitch. The hippie-era Hair was one of the first shows to rock the Broadway stage, and, decades later, "Aquarius" is still the ultimate anthem of free-flowing flower power. The haunted-house hip-swivel of "Time Warp" spins you back to the '70s, when U.K. glam rock got even more theatrical with cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Even the sleek swoosh of '80s synth pop got a Broadway booking with Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok," the worldwide hit from Chess that had all the right moves.

From Dancing Queens to Jersey Boys, plug into even more poptastic theatrics in Next Steps.

Broadway went pop in a big way when the "jukebox musical" exploded onto the theater scene, bringing classic rock 'n' roll repertoire roaring into the Great White Way. Mamma Mia! really kicked off the craze, turning ABBA smashes like the dazzled-beneath-the-disco-ball "Dancing Queen" from shimmering radio staple to Tony® material. Billy Joel's songbook shook the rafters all over again when Twyla Tharp put dance moves to the Piano Man's tough-but-tender tunes, with the tire-screeching street scenes of "Movin' Out" making for a motor-vating title track. And Jersey Boys tells the falsetto-flying, finger-snapping Four Seasons story with the doo wop-meets-Motown twist-'n'-croon of the sweet-talkin' "Sherry."

Rock musicals get hot under the collar in Deep Cuts.

The four-on-the-floor drive of rock 'n' roll revved up the modern musical on both Broadway and the silver screen, making it exciting and, yes, sexy again. You can almost hear the hot-to-trot steam rise from the hip-shaking flames of "Burning Love," from the Elvis Presley show All Shook Up. With Grease, stars John Travolta and Jeff Conaway — of Taxi fame — up front, black-leather rockabilly/hot-rod romp "Greased Lightnin'" strikes a lusty chord. And if Queen's theatrical flair seems tailor-made for a musical homage like We Will Rock You, what better tune than their ultimate rock opera, "Bohemian Rhapsody," to provide the platform-heeled centerpiece?

From the overture to the finale, here's where you can sit back and soak up the full range of musicals powered by rock and pop. Go all the way back to Marty Wilde's pompadoured pop-idol croon "One Last Kiss" from the early-'60s show Bye Bye Birdie, or rocket right up to the present day with the hyped-up hip-hop of "96,000," from gritty urban love story In the Heights. Whether you're feeling the funk from The Wiz's slip-sliding groovefest "Ease On Down the Road" or bouncing from bumper to bumper with "Pinball Wizard," from the stage version of the Who's classic rock opera, Tommy, you'll come away filled with the rush of rock energy and the flush of footlight fantasy that collide in these hot-blooded modern musicals.