Never Mind The Mullet; It's the Tunes.

Sooner or later it had to happen. The immortal hair bands of the 1980s finally receive their due in the brash jukebox musical ''Rock of Ages'' at New World Stages. It's a natural fit: the era's album-oriented radio -- this production has no time for the British synthesizer bands, R.E.M. or the great dance music of the period -- was closer to Broadway in its grandiosity than you might expect. But like much of the music that inspires it, ''Rock of Ages'' too often lacks a human pulse. The paper-thin story, played for laughs, is about saving the farm, here the club: the Sunset Strip's Bourbon Room, home of glamsters and metalheads and owned by Dennis (Adam Dannheisser, channeling too much Will Ferrell). While it's targeted for demolition by predatory developers (Paul Schoeffler and Wesley Taylor), Sherrie (Kelli Barrett), an aspiring actress from Kansas, meets the gentle busboy and aspiring musician Drew (the ''American Idol'' alumnus Constantine Maroulis, appealingly self-effacing). Complicating their entanglement is Stacee Jaxx, a preening rooster of a singer (Will Swenson of this summer's Central Park ''Hair,'' stealing the show with Axl Rose moves and Tim Curry overstatement). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]