The night MiG rocked Boston

BOSTON — The phrase Rock of Ages has multiple uses. Often a referent of religious icons, it also serves as the title of Christian and Jewish hymns and popular music and the name of at least one book written by Stephen Jay Gould. Facetiously, Rock of Ages also happens to be the name of a granite quarrying firm in Vermont, USA, as well as that of an active lighthouse of the US Coast Guard.

Its new turn as the title of a rock musical has been rather long in coming so it was only to be expected that when Rock of Ages arrived on Broadway last year, it quickly turned into a hit (garnering five Tony nominations) that promptly occasioned a multi-city national tour after only a year in the Great White Way. The road tour kicked off September in Chicago to good reviews. Depending on how middle America receives it, more cities will be added to the play’s itinerary even as it continues to make a solid run on Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson theater.

Tonight, a winter cold evening, the musical opens in snubby old Boston, uncertain of how proper Bostonians in this historic New England town will take to something as jarring as a heavy metal musical. Rock of Ages plays the Colonial, an ornate theater with a turn-of-the-century feel at the hub of the town’s art and restaurant belt.

At the helm of the musical is Constantine Maroulis, the American Idol Season 4 (ultimately won by Carrie Underwood) contender. He reprises in this tour his Tony award-nominated performance as a big time rocker in the original Broadway production.

Rock of Ages has a structural resemblance to, if you will, Mamma Mia in that it is set to the soundtrack of songs by various ’80s rock bands. It is awash with the anthems of the decade by Night Rider, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Whitesnake, Twisted Sister, Poison, STYX, plus Bon Jovi, Pat Benetar and more. Think Mamma Mia in very rock terms.

But whereas, in Mamma Mia the story is told through the big hits of the ABBAs, the songs jiving conveniently with the plot situations, most of the songs in Rock of Ages do not always factor into the thin story line. But one need not make a big deal out of that because the nostalgic ’80s heavy metals are the real draw in this production.

The musical is described as a “hair-band love story of a small town girl who meets a big city rocker in L.A.’s Sunset Strip’s most famous dive bar in 1987.” The ’80s here in very visuals-accurate. The cast crackles with energy cavorting in crotch busting spandex, glittery headbands, studs and big hair, that whole ’80s schtick. The actors, not yet famous but very enabled, have zest and fire, each one assiduously living up to his/her rockist cred.

Curiously, Maroulis appears scanted in this tour. Playing Drew, the big-city rocker, he seems hard put striking a spark. After making his entrance, he is unable to push, much less sustain his presence, sort of blending into the drapes after his first aria.Twice, midway into solos, he hand motions the audience to applaud. It is clear Maroulis is not carrying the evening.

Of special interest among Filipino-American theatergoers is MiG who is on the bill, playing a “spoiled, wannabe raunchy rock star Stacee Jaxx, a character modeled, according to the production notes, after Dee Synder of the band Twisted Sister. In the playbill, MiG is described as “Aussie/Filipino rock vocalist of Spanish and Ilonggo ancestry.” He was born Miguel Alfonso Ramon Ayesa in Manila and raised in Australia. The Legardas and Preyslers of Manila are MiG’s blood kin.

Among the minglers in the evening’s audience are Dr. Ching Legarda (wife of Dr. Ramon Legarda, MiG’s uncle, who was on vacation in Manila), her son Aldo and his fiancee Charisse Luk and concert producers Red and Alice Martinez, all of New York, plus assorted personages of the Filipino-American communities of the Tri State area.

 MiG stirs pride among the Fil-Ams as he tears into his role of the over-the top rock star Stacee Jaxx. It’s the kind of performance that sent the Chicago Tribune raving during the play’s debut in the Windy City. “Some of the touring cast is better than the originals...MiG Ayesa has a killer voice and a delicious sense of humor,” said the paper.

“The only performance that was at all impressive comes from MiG Ayesa. He is funny in the role and tempers his silliness with a bit of style and flair that’s amusing,” concurred the Northwest Indiana Times.

As the critics have noted, MiG indeed has a killer voice which he uses to great advantage in displaying a lot of rock heroics that his role demands. His renditions incite many responses. In the end, you’re either rivved up or depleted. And what amazing energy! Even if he’s running all over the stage he doesn’t appear whipped at curtain call.

Two hours before company call, MiG shows up at her Tita Ching’s hotel near the Colonial, a sorry-looking sandwich and a can of soda in hand. It’s all he’s having today. A full stomach doesn’t make for an okay performance, he says, displaying none of a performer’s fabled opening-night panic. (At a café after the night’s performance, he would be seen vengefully scarfing a huge mound of greens laden with bacon bits and slathered with a very gooey dressing.)

Looking slight in build, MiG surprised us all seeing him trimly muscled on stage later (he is shirtless for much of the play). I asked him if there are diva moments in a usually ego-intensive environment such as a road company.

“If you mean is Constantine difficult, no he is not,” says MiG sounding a bit awed by the man. “He is quite nice, considerate and respectful to cast and crew. He’s a great artist. He completely blew me away when I watched in on Broadway.”

MiG made a name as a frontrunner in the CBS series Rock Star: INXS in 2005, ultimately winning third place in the worldwide competition. In succeeding years, he launched career-defining moves that included recording a debut CD and logging in a lot of stage and television performances in London, Sydney and New York, earning notices in well-acted roles in Grease, Fame, West Side Story, We Will Rock You and Rent which played the Prince of Wales Theater in London’s West End. He also toured in live concerts like Thriller Live, Queen Symphonic Spectacular and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. His television credits include Handel’s Messiah Rocks, The Royal Variety Performance and The Ferrals.

In January this year, MiG debuted in Burn the Floor on Broadway and spent weeks touring the show in Australia, Japan, Korea, Canada and the US.

His career running at a nice speed, MiG is taking it one day at a time. Stardoom will come when it comes. He says he’s never one mad to be famous so as to lose his Filipino moorings.

“Sure, I want to gig but not at a killer pace where I will lose track of what really counts — family, well being and a harmonious oneness with the world and fellowman,” MiG muses.

Some rocker. I’ve never met a rock star with a spiritual bent. Curious about this “unrockist” attitude, I ask MiG how he deals with the fabled excesses supposedly indulged by rockers on tour.

“Well, it comes with the territory. For some reason, a lot of women really dig rockers and, yes, I’ve been hit on a few times but as I always say, it takes two to tango but I’m not ready to tango, thank you.”

Does that kind of say he sees cheating as largely a matter of calculated readiness?

“Naaah, of course not! I love my wife very much.” His wife of nine years, Simone de la Rue, is an actress/dancer/personal/trainer who in fact, as we were chatting, was entraining for Boston that very moment for a weekend of dalliance with MiG.

Simone helps a big name showbiz clientele (plus Chelsea Clinton) keep in shape. She’s in the cast of the revived 1968 Neil Simon play, Promises, Promises running current on Broadway. When time and circumstance allow, MiG and Simone, who are childless, unite wherever each happens to be performing.

On gigless days, time stops for the couple, savoring rare moments when schedules and energy make no demands on their time. Or else, the Ayesas pal it up with other showbiz couples. They are friendly with the Damons, Matt and his wife Luciana, something that MiG tries hard to downplay. Only after much prodding does MiG show glossies of their happy foursome frolicking on a beach in Maui the summer of last year.

According to MiG, there’s no shop talk when they socialize with the Damons. “On those occasions, showbiz is the last thing in our minds. We just live the good time at hand.” To him, the Damons are just regular folks whosefriendship he appreciates but not obsess about.

Nor does he gloat that he and Simone were among the only few selects invited to Chelsea’s wedding a few months ago in upstate New York at which even Barack Obama was not asked.

“Is that so?” the rocker querries, sounding a little incredulous at that bit of social trivia. Up until that moment he had thought the Clinton invite as just one of those things. Whatever significance it was supposed to have had been entirely lost on him.

“Oh, okay,” MiG murmurs when someone reiterates the info.

It is now half past six — less than an hour to curtain time — and Tita Ching asks if MiG shouldn’t be going already. Tacitly, the rocker gathers his gear and makes for the door. “Go, rock Boston,” Tita Ching calls after him.

“I will,” answers MiG somewhat sheepishly, disappearing into the frigid, neon-lit night.