Dee Snider Joins Broadway's 'Rocktopia' After Just One Rehearsal

The red hot limited-engagement Broadway show Rocktopia has added another famous rocker to its ranks: former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider

Snider is jumping into the show after spending most of the winter relaxing at his new home in Belize. 

The rocker's first show is tonight, April 9. He says the show has him performing songs he's never before sung live.   

"I don't need more than one [rehearsal]," Snider told Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr and Shelli Sonstein. "I'm good. I'm singing 'Kashmir,' I'm singing 'Stairway [to Heaven],' I'm singing 'Dream On'—these classic songs."

Rocktopia is a concert event that joins together some the most iconic 20th-century rock with renowned classical masterpieces.

Train frontman Patrick Monahan opened the production in late-March. Cheap Trick frontman Robin Zander will close out its run the last week of April.

"This is the next level, though," Snider says of the fusion of rock hits and classical symphonic music. "People seem to like the symphonic rock thing. Here they are literally taking classical music and combining it with rock music. So you've got opera singers on stage and you've got me on stage, showing 'em how it's done (laughs)."

Snider added in to Q104.3 that he's a choir boy at heart. He grew up singing in church and in school choirs.

"I was a choir geek in high school—the only place I found solace," Snider said. "And I was in the drama club. I [played] Jesus in Godspell."

Snider's first Broadway job was in the jukebox musical, Rock of Ages. He's amused at how often people are surprised at how versatile a vocalist he is.

"I'm always stunned...when people see me outside of my normal [rock] world, they go, 'I didn't know you could sing!'" Snider said. "I've literally heard that so many times...like when it's your song you're not really singing it. But when it's somebody else's song and you do it justice, people are just sort of stunned." 

He says he went to a performance of Rocktopia over the weekend and overheard someone saying, "No way Dee Snider can sing those songs."

"I wanted to say, 'Come back tomorrow! You'll see!'"

He tells the show the only reason he didn't say anything was because he was laughing so hard. 

Snider adds that he'd love to perform in a live TV musical, like Alice Cooper recently did in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar.

Watch the full interview above!

Rocktopia will play at the Broadway Theatre through April 29, 2018. Get more information here


Thumbnail Photo: Getty Images


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