Rock and musicals don’t exactly have the best history together, let alone metal and musicals, so it was with some trepidation that I went to go see Air Guitar the Musical, playing in lower Manhattan as a part of The New York International Fringe Festival.

At the same time, I did have a fun time at Regional Air Guitar Championships in March and the “orchestra” for this musical was none other than the Gods of Fire, the opening act from the Air Guitar Championship, so I was willing to give the show a shot…and as far as musicals go, this one was a good time.

Air Guitar's Plot

The premise of the show was pretty simple: Drew is a guitarist in his late 20s, struggling with his own mediocrity as a musician and his pretensions to high art. He plays his “compositions for solo electric guitar” every month at an open mic to the same 12 bored friends, but longs for the days when he won a battle of the bands in college and had the adoration of hundreds of fans, including Celeste, the woman whom he later married and with whom he lives along with his college buddy (and former bandmate) Steve. When the opportunity to compete in the 2007 Air Guitar Championships presents itself, Drew finds himself drawn into the world of air guitar, struggling with his perception of air guitar as a fake art form even as he finds out, to his horror, that he’s a really, really good air guitarist. Top it all off with a romance story built on a marriage on the rocks thanks to Drew’s depression about his failure as a musician and you’ve got the basic idea for the plot.

Air Guitar: A Good Time

Overall, there are some great performances in Air Guitar (Becca Ayers, who plays Celeste, does an especially good job, slaying the crowd with her solo piece in the second act) and some great metal to go along with them. Don’t expect to achieve any sort of spiritual enlightenment from the plot and because the band is on stage with the actors, they do occasionally outshine the actors who are “airing” to their music, but you’ll definitely be entertained. If you’re in the New York City area on Saturday, August 26 or Sunday, August 27, 2006, Air Guitar might just be the afternoon entertainment you’re looking for.