School of Rock: The Musical: stage vs screen

School of Rock began as Richard Linklater's 2003 comedy, written by Mike White and starring Jack Black as Dewey Finn and Joan Cusack as Principal Mullins. The Broadway musical, which opened in 2015 with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, and a book by Julian Fellowes, keeps the fake substitute teacher and his class band but changes the music and gives the kids and grown-ups more to do. Here is how the two compare.

Stage

Broadway musical (2015)

Screen

School of Rock (2003), directed by Richard Linklater

1. The score is new, not a rock playlist

The film leans on classic rock records, including AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and Stevie Nicks. The musical replaces most of that with an original score by Lloyd Webber and Slater, with songs like "Stick It to the Man," "When I Climb to the Top of Mount Rock," and "If Only You Would Listen." A few songs carry over from the film, including the title song "School of Rock," played at the competition, and Dewey's classroom number "Math Is a Wonderful Thing."

2. The kids play live in both

Linklater scouted for young musicians who could really play to form the film's kid band. The stage show turns that into a nightly test: the young cast plays its instruments live at every performance. In London, the three children's bands that shared the roles won the 2017 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music, for playing live every night.

3. Dewey gets thrown out of No Vacancy on stage

In the film, a failed stage dive cuts a club show short, and Dewey turns up at the next rehearsal to find he has been replaced. The musical opens with No Vacancy performing "I'm Too Hot for You," and the band votes him out after he keeps upstaging the singer. The stage version also gives him a big wish song, "When I Climb to the Top of Mount Rock," while Ned and Patty press him for the rent.

4. Rosalie Mullins sings

Joan Cusack's Roz Mullins is an overworked principal who secretly loves rock and bonds with Dewey over Stevie Nicks. Sierra Boggess's Rosalie keeps that secret but gets music for it: she sings "Queen of the Night," leads "Here at Horace Green," and pours out her longing in "Where Did the Rock Go?" She also stands up for Dewey late in the show.

5. Zack and his father get a showdown

In the film, Joey Gaydos Jr.'s Zack, nicknamed Zack-Attack, is the lead guitarist whose overbearing father disapproves of rock, and the band plays a song Zack wrote at the competition, but father and son never face off there. The musical stages it: Brandon Niederauer's Zack sings in "If Only You Would Listen," brings in his own song in Act Two, and at the Battle of the Bands defies his father, who shouts at him not to go onstage.

6. Some classmates are renamed

The musical keeps Summer as the band's manager and Tomika as its big voice, but renames several students. Shonelle and Marcy replace the film's Alicia and Marta, Mason replaces Gordon, and James replaces Frankie. Tomika also gets a new family: two adoptive fathers instead of her biological parents. She gets a showcase of her own in "Amazing Grace."

7. The cover story unravels differently

In the film, Ned finds out when a paycheck arrives in his name, Patty reports Dewey, and he is exposed at a parents' meeting. In the musical, Dewey confesses to Ned in Act Two, parents burst into a rehearsal, and Patty forces the truth out of Ned in "Dewey's Confession." Ned later stands up to Patty and goes with the kids, and after the Battle of the Bands, Patty's attempt to have Dewey arrested fails.

8. The ending

In the film, No Vacancy wins the Battle of the Bands, but the crowd chants for an encore from the kids. Afterward, Dewey runs School of Rock as an after-school program, with Ned teaching beginners. The musical also lets No Vacancy win and gives the kids an encore, "Stick It to the Man." Rosalie then saves Dewey from arrest by calling him the school's official band coach, and the finale blends her classical voice with the band's rock.

School of Rock: The Musical movie vs musical: FAQs