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David Simon as Dewey Finn, front right, tries to teach rock doctrine to students in a rehearsal scene from "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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Brandon Garside as Dewey Finn, left, gestures to students during a rehearsal scene for "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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A cast member plays the guitar as character Zach Mooneyham during a rehearsal for "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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Students gather around David Simon as Dewey Finn, center seated, during a rehearsal scene from "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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The cast of "School of Rock: The Musical" rocks out during a rehearsal at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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The cast of "School of Rock: The Musical" rehearses a scene at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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A student tries to speak to his father during a rehearsal for "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse in June 2025. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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A rehearsal scene from "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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David Simon as Dewey Finn, center, gestures to a student while putting together the band during a rehearsal scene from "School of Rock: The Musical" at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. The production runs June 13 to July 26.

Photo supplied, Cassie Gallegos

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WASHINGTON TERRACE — Theater helped Carol Madsen find connection when living in Brazil, where she became a stage director somewhat by default.

“If you were the last one there, that meant you were directing,” said the now-Layton resident of two decades.

Her late husband’s business took the California native to Brazil; his passing meant theater helped her find a new community in her move to Utah.

Then it helped her push through the diagnosis of and treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2022. She’d just taken a job directing a show at Beverly’s Terrace Plaza Playhouse for the first time and wasn’t sure it would happen.

“I think you better find a different director,” Madsen said she told Playhouse owner Jacci Florence, “because I don’t think I’m going to be alive.”

Three years later, she’s tackling the production of “School of Rock: The Musical,” unique even among musicals, as her eighth directing gig since her diagnosis. It’s running at Terrace Plaza Playhouse on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays (July 4 excluded) from June 13 to July 26.

“Jacci and this theater surrounded me with love and support, and I can’t thank them enough — and Hopebox Theatre was there for me, CenterPoint was there for me,” Madsen said. “I don’t think it’s because I’m such a great director; people, I guess, are just saying ‘keep going.'”

Madsen knew “School of Rock” would be a challenge. The production is from the 2003 film of the same name, adapted for stage by musical theater legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, in which a holding-too-long-to-a-dream wannabe rock star poses as his roommate to take a substitute teaching job at a snooty prep school and forms a rock band with the students.

But she also knew she could lean on directors she knows who have led the show for tips in making it happen. So she quickly learned the first order of business: early auditions. She had a band to make, with adult leads and youth actors who can not only sing but play instruments, play them well enough to do it live in front of an audience, and do it with some flair.

They also needed time to practice as a band long before stage rehearsals began. (And, same goes for casting the rival band, No Vacancy, to be in the musical as well.)

The process began in January and landed on two regulars of northern Utah community theater who both said they knew if they could do any lead role in any stage production anywhere, it would be as Dewey Finn, who most know from the original film as being tailor-made for Jack Black.

Needing enough musicianship, acting experience and connection with the youth auditioners in the show’s two casts, Madsen found her Deweys in Brandon Garside of South Ogden and David Simon of Kaysville.

Garside, the former Standard-Examiner sports reporter turned government communications director, and Simon, a junior high band and choir teacher in Kaysville, have eyed the role of Dewey Finn for some time.

Dewey gives Garside, who’s played the guitar since high school, an opportunity to combine his two teenage dreams. Community theater already scratched the itch of wanting to be an actor without taking the ultimate risk to attempt it professionally, and now leading “School of Rock” means he’s a rock star, too.

“It allows you to enjoy it all without the pressure of, oh, can I book this Doritos commercial so I can pay rent?” Garside said. “No, I get to play Dewey Finn and have a blast doing it.

“Let me be clear, I do not have near the talent to be a touring musician or anything like that but when you’re a kid, you fantasize about that stuff and what it would be like. … There’s nothing like playing with a band so to be able to do it again after 20 years is incredible.”

Simon said he had the chance to see the original Broadway run of “School of Rock” and thought, “who in their right mind would ever try to do this show? It’s just so big, it’s a production, it’s a rock concert, the sound things are just so fun, and the talent of the kids and the musicians, who thinks they could pull this off?” he said.

Now he’s doing it. The guitar is a new venture for Simon, a teacher by profession playing a teacher on stage.

“I’ve never had the dream of being like a rock star … but I’ve had a great time teaching,” Simon said. “My teaching style, I try to spice it up but … it’s fun to do the role of Dewey because you get to say things you would never say in the classroom and let loose a bit, so it’s fun to just pretend … like an alter ego thing.”

What’s better is both Garside and Simon each get to play opposite their own real-life wife. Lindsea Garside and Margaret Simon, each also community theater regulars, play Rosalie Mullins, who in the musical has a larger role as love attempts to blossom between Dewey and the school’s principal. Lindsea teaches high school theater and Margaret is a piano teacher and frequent accompanist of various performances in Davis County.

The couples are getting their first opportunity to share stage time as leads with each other. Madsen said the couple pairings were not a prerequisite and not sought in auditions, but the circumstances ended up being too good not to cast them.

“It was a slam dunk for both of these women,” Madsen said.

But, David Simon said, the kids in the cast are what make the show.

“The kids we have, they’re phenomenal. They rose up to the challenge; they’re fantastic,” he said.

Madsen said Garside and Simon have been willing to try anything to improve their performances except, she lauded, anything that would look like an attempt to outshine the youth cast.

“They could say ‘oh yeah, this is an opportunity for me,’ but they’ve said in some moments, ‘that might take away from the kids and we don’t want that to happen,'” Madsen explained.

Madsen said another key difference from the film that gives the musical an additional measure of heart is how it explores the dynamics between the students and their parents.

“Andrew Lloyd Webber and Julian Fellowes really knocked it out of the park with this. It’s very well-written and the music goes deeper into the characters,” Madsen said. “It touches my heart more when you look at the parents and the kids and how they love each other but they just … miss opportunities to connect. You see the parents and kids try to come together, and that’s a big difference.”

Adding to that dynamic, the Simon family also has sons Luke and Will, on keyboard and guitar in the same cast as their parents, who made the band.

“It’s super cool just to see them flourish,” David said. “Will’s always had this dream of doing this show and just embrace the rock side of it. … and Luke, he really excels on piano. So it’s been special.”

Not only that, but it’s a last hurrah, for now, for the Simons in Utah. David accepted a job with the Department of Defense to teach music for American military families stationed in Japan for at least two years, and perhaps longer. They spent 2020 in Japan and are headed back about two weeks after the show’s run ends.

Other youth band members in the cast include Lillian Logan on bass and Charlotte Booth on the drums, as well as Molly and Brody Davis, whose father, Marty, is also in the cast.

Madsen said the show is mostly for all ages but patrons should be advised that the show is loud — “it’s rock music” — and that it contains some occasional strong language — “it’s not crude, but there’s some strong language. The message is strong.

“These kids want to be heard, and that’s the message of the show, just that we need to listen to each other,” she said. “Sit down and listen because people have great things to say and the kids in the show, their characters have a lot to say.”

“It speaks a lot to the relationship between parents and kids,” Garside said, “and also finding that inner child as adults and the passions and interests that we’ve put aside in the name of growing up and being adults, and how it’s not too late to find and enjoy those.”

IF YOU GO

What: “School of Rock: The Musical”

Where: Terrace Plaza Playhouse; 99 E. 4700 South, Washington Terrace

When: Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays, June 13 to July 26 (no show July 4)

Cost: $18-$25

Tickets: terraceplazaplayhouse.com

Image supplied, Brady Stratton / Terrace Plaza Playhouse