ONLY ON ABC7NEWS.COM: Oakland students to perform 'School of Rock' Broadway musical

SAN FRANCISCO -- If you remember the movie "School of Rock," you'll love the Broadway version produced by the legendary Andrew Lloyd Weber.

He agreed to allow the musical to be shown in San Francisco only if performed by middle and high school students.

Webber adapted the film "School of Rock" into a Broadway musical. It was so popular that he wanted a select number of schools in America to perform it too. "The conditions comes that they must be students and under 18 and so we knew we had the kids who could not only act, but sing, dance, and lay instruments as well," musical director Michael Berry said.

Oakland School for the Arts received a call from San Francisco theatrical producer Carole Shorenstein Hays to ask if the school was willing to be the first. "It's so exciting no matter what to have a big name like that involved in a project like this, but it's not necessarily like a daunting task because we're just out here to do what we've been trained to do," Kyndall Sillanpaa said.

Students have had only a few weeks to prepare. They do it all themselves from the makeup, stage design and costumes to playing the instruments.

Jack Isaacson Brewster plays the unruly Dewey Finn who poses as a substitute teacher at private school, exposing them to hard rock. "Something that people kept telling me during the show was jack stop thinking about it, just do what you would do," he said.

Right now the Curran Theatre is undergoing major renovation so the audience will only have access to be on stage right next to the performers.

The San Francisco production is scheduled to run eight performances beginning Thursday, March 3 at the Curran Theatre. All the performances are sold out.