Styx's DeYoung makes shift to musical theater

By Bill Eichenberger
(Dispatch Pop Music Critic)

Dennis DeYoung had only one request: "Bill, do me a favor. Make it funny."
DeYoung had just finished talking about his new role as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar. But he had done all the hard work, the funny work, for me.
To wit: How did the co-founder fo the 1970s art-rock band Styx and the other of radio hits Babe, Lady and Come Sail Away land in a Broadway musical?
"Temporary insanity - I'm pleading nolo contendere," DeYoung said with a chuckle.
"Seriously, I blame (executive producer) Forbes Candlish. He approached me and said he was a longtime fan of Styx. He said he'd always seen me as Pontius Pilate. Or was it Alfred E. Neuman?"
Candlish's phone call arrived at an opportune time.
"It was a good time for me to try something different. I had always wanted to write a musical and figured this would be an excellent opportunity to view one from the ground floor up."

During the more than 15 years as the driving force behind Styx, DeYoung achieved mass commercial success, although the band's pretensions often stirred savage reviews in the rock press.
Performing in Jesus Christ Superstar, DeYoung said, eases the pressure that he and singer Tommy Shaw once felt as Styx's primary songwriters.
"I don't take the reviews as personally as I did in Styx unless they're directed at me. If they hate the choreography, hey, that's no skin off my toes," he said.
"I used to read all the reviews when I was in Styx, and I used to take them all to heart. But I haven't been too harshly criticized - which has been an unexpected surprise.
"In any case, if I wake up and read, 'An otherwise enjoyable evening at the theater was ruined by DeYoung and Pontius Pilate,' I can handle that. I don't have as much invested in it."
Although the musical has been on the road little more than two months, DeYoung said, he has already learned a great deal.

"For one, this Jesus Christ fellow is a pretty popular guy. His show's been running for 2,000 years," DeYoung said.
"And I've discovered that bigtime rock 'n' roll is every bit as together and professional as the best musical theater."
Evidently, Atlantic Records thinks so, too. The record company has offered DeYoung the opportunity to cut an album of Broadway tunes.
"If you look at most of our stuff, especially Kilroy Was Here, you'll find that it was very theatrical. We never subscribed to the school of thought that said rock 'n' roll has to be recorded in your garage to be good."
That's the same school that panned Styx for its bombast and for what critic Mark Coleman described as its "nauseatingly sweet proto-power ballads."
DeYoung said: "These critics have a deluded idea of what rock's all about. The people who invented rock 'n' roll - folks like Chck Berry, LaVern Baker and Etta James - these people could sing and play like crazy.

"Some critics say it's no good unless it's raw and unpolished, but you listen to Louis Jordan, and he had it down to the last eight note, baby."
DeYoung did acknowledge that a certain, er, maturity is required to shift from rock 'n' roll to musical theater.
"You've got to accept that the idea that somebody is going to break into a song at any moment - something that never happens in real life," he said.
"So I guess you do have to have a certain romantic nature. You can't be afraid that if you listen to it your testosterone level will drop, your hair will fall out and you'll get prostate problems."
The shift has been a natural process for DeYoung, one that he insists fellow baby boomers are making right along with him.
"That's what rock 'n' roll is all about - the baby boomers. It was more of an economic revolution than a musical revolution. Baby boomers made rock 'n' roll what it was
"I think those same baby boomers are turning more and more to the theater."

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