Rock of Ages Smashes Guinness World Record for Largest Air Guitar Ensemble

Tony-nominated new musical Rock of Ages shattered the Guinness World Record for largest air guitar ensemble on July 1. The previous record, held by 440 air rockers at a music festival in Donington Park, U.K., was smashed by a total of 810 rockers at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre after the show’s matinee performance.

In order to break the record, Rock of Ages’ air musicians had to play for at least 90 uninterrupted seconds. Led by 2007 U.S. Air Guitar Champion William Ocean, the 810 cast, crew, audience members and additional fans ended up "playing" for over two minutes to the famous guitar solo from Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

“As a professional air guitar player, I can definitely say without a doubt that Broadway rocks,” Ocean told Broadway.com.

Rock of Ages is set in 1987 on the Sunset Strip, where a small town girl meets a big city rocker in L.A.’s most famous rock club. Their arena-rock love story is told through the hits of Journey, Bon Jovi, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and many more. Rock of Ages opened off-Broadway on October 16, 2008, at New World Stages and played its final performance on January 4, 2009. The show originally made its world premiere in Los Angeles at The Vanguard.

Rock of Ages was written by Chris D’Arienzo, directed by Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by Kelly Devine. It stars Constantine Maroulis, James Carpinello, Adam Dannheisser, Mitchell Jarvis, Michele Mais, Lauren Molina, Paul Schoeffler, Wesley Taylor, Ericka Hunter, Jeremy Jordan, Michael Minarik, Angel Reed, Bahiyah Sayyed-Gaines, Katherine Tokarz, Andre Ward, Savannah Wise, Tad Wilson and Jeremy Woodard.