Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera
American Repertory Theater's
Club Oberon Boston, MA

Director/Choreographer

"Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera” is a lot like the scandal it’s named for: a little lurid, a little tough to swallow and undeniably entertaining. Staged at club/theater hybrid Oberon, this version of “Tonya and Nancy” sees the titular adversaries “skating” all over Oberon’s dance floor, mounted on rolling platforms. The result is both really funny and oddly effective.... Director Janet Roston has found some fantastic performers ..particularly Kristen Lee Sergeant and Darcie Champagne in the lead roles. When “Tonya and Nancy” nails a moment — such as Gillooly’s hilarious lament, “When You Wake Up Sleeping in Your Car in Estacada,” or an aerialist simulating midair figure skating — it’s like watching a skater land that perfect triple Lutz."
Boston Herald

"Tonya & Nancy" is about the trashy celebrity that the news cycle sometimes bestows on mere mortals.The rock opera recounts all of this, though sometimes in a haphazard fashion. Never mind: The way that the ensemble push the figure skaters around on rolling platforms (to simulate ice skating) while video footage from a rink plays on a screen behind them makes the transformation of Club Oberon into the aptly-named "Club Lillehammer" so complete that venue, music, choreography, and a too-trash-tastic tale of rivalry all become one wild theatrical experience...the show possesses an insane energy that’s entirely a propos to the characters."
EdgeontheNet.com

"A stunning visual and sonic experience, a riveting motion poem and roller coaster ride in to the American hyperculture. Through the use of small round stages on wheels propelled through the audience by the ensemble Director/Choreographer Janet Roston distabilizes figure and ground to create the illusion of competitive figure skaters, Tonya and Nancy. Roston integrates the audience in to the performance, breaking the fourth wall and making them actual spectators in the real Olympic events. The coup de gras was the aerialist "skating" between sky and ice creating an indelible image of body and reflection. An exhilarating in-the-round theater experience."
Richard Cambridge, Artsake.MassCulturalCouncil.org

"The storyline’s so melodramatic, duplicitous, and droll, it’s downright epic. This story’s got it all: Action, intrigue, ambition, betrayal—it’s practically Shakespeare on ice. With a sick sense of humor to boot. The all-singing all-dancing cast is all-fricking over the place. They’re singing from the dance-floor, yelling from the rafters, dancing on mobile chunks of stage that are wheeled around the club. Nowhere is off limits, even on top of the bar. During one of the closing numbers, an aerialist is introduced who, dangling from the ceiling, gracefully twists her body up and down on a silken cord. It’s not only clever in its mimicry of figure skating, it’s un-freekin-forgettable. I’ll never look at rock ‘n’ roll, theater, or figure skating the same way again."
TheNoise-Boston.com

"The show fills every corner of the small club/theater, and even spills out onto the street and beyond. Although the show begins in 1991 and continues a bit past 1994, it is principally about the media frenzy surrounding the bizarre and horrifying attack. It's all stylized and surreal, as it really has to be. Searle and director Janet Roston don't just play the story for laughs; both Tonya and Nancy are portrayed as somewhat sympathetic, although cartoonish, characters. Roston makes great use of the smallish space. Actors move through the audience, sing from every corner of the room and occasionally climb over the balcony and sing standing on tables."
IceNetwork.com

"...rousing numbers, some powerful performances and director Janet Roston's entertaining choreography...Sacred Fools has the template for a scary romp, and when the twist comes, it actually causes a little chill."
LA Weekly

"CarnEvil is a campy, B movie musical romp replete with gore...featuring a creative, constantly moving set that makes use of the entire stage space, Victorian inspired magic lantern shows, dancing Cthulus and a human zombified marrionette in a dance that is equal parts graceful and inhumanly disturbing. The second half of the show is nothing but action from start to finish with a whirlwind pace that slams to a close at the end like a life being snuffed out."
CreepyLA.com

"The original story is a musical nightmare of sorts, both unsettling and highly addictive at the same time, with plenty of psychological stimulation to draw you completely into this tattered world, and enough comic elements to offer relief from its underlying intensity... The carnival springs to life, all color and movement, as staged by director/choreographer Janet Roston. Sacred Fools' fearlessness has shown through once again with this bold, audacious work. CarnEvil's unique combination of attributes is tailor-made for the irreverent company and it's begun to draw a wide audience from among its extended goth/horror families. One can already see that a cult following is imminent."
MusiciansInLA.com

"..this horror-filled world-premiere musical was deftly directed by Janet Roston. Stuffed to the brim and beyond with stunning songs, Lovecraftian plot twists and imaginative sets, costumes and staging, this musical is a must-see for any horror fan."
LiveinFear.com

“Puritans breaking into power ballads makes heady sense in Mark Governor’s rock musical “shAme,” adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter. Director-choreographer Janet Roston uses King King's grunge chic club space, with its exposed brick and steel beams, to set an aesthetic that emphasizes raw performance This vivid inaugural production of the Los Angeles Rock Opera Company, “shAme” now pumps up the volume of this classic pageant on Wednesdays at King King in Hollywood.”
Los Angeles Times

“In best rock opera fashion, musical styles and behavioral anachronisms pile on in service to the central story and the overall effect is impressive indeed.. . .who knew that all the material needed was an eclectic rock score by Mark Governor and a little direction and choreography, both achieved with clarity and wit on the part of Janet Roston, to kick its dry old husk into life?”
Backstage

“L.A. ROC’s “shAme” is a pulsating study in scarlet. Imagine the oh so straight-laced Puritans turned inside-out so all their repressed urges are on the surface. Director/choreographer Roston uses nearly every square inch of Hollywood’s King King nightclub to pilot Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth to their respective destinies…the evening is vibrant..”
Daily News

“Music is catchy and the performances rock. And there’s no shAme in that!”
StageSceneLA.com

“Who’d have guessed that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter would be a ripe fruit for an adaptation into a rock opera? Yet Mark Governor’s creation for an ensemble of 10 uses the saga of Puritan guilt as a valid exploration of “The Interior of a Heart” under director-choreographer Janet Roston’s snappy staging.
L.A. Weekly

“The production is pretty much flawless, and the use of the limited space (with hardly any backstage) is admirable. The show is technically one of the most proficient I’ve seen in a small theater. And the cast can actually sing, and sing well.”
Curtainup.com

Janet Roston's lithe, folk-flavored choreography convulses the stage, particularly an elegant ball that Ti Moune turns into a liberating dance fever.
Los Angeles Times

Flaherty's music matches up equally well with choreography by Janet Roston that has an authentically primitive look whether joyous, savage or – as in one key scene at the Beauxhommes’ formal ball – a delicate, graceful dance by Ti Moune that evolves into uninhibited moves backed by a driving, insistent rhythm.
The Orange County Register

The multi-talented performers are equally adept at dancing, and Roston’s high-octane choreography is as integral to the story as the lyrics.
Daily Breeze