Tom Cruise to star in a big screen musical? He appears set to star as Stacee Jaxx in “Rock of Ages”

Tom Cruise dropped by the Pantages Theater in Hollywood over the weekend to catch a performance of the musical Rock of Ages and meet the cast after the show.

The star of such films as Risky Business, Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men and the Mission Impossible franchise wasn’t there for a casual theatrical experience: He reportedly will play the role of Stacee Jaxx, an aging musician whose glory days are long past, in the feature film adaptation of the show.

Can Tom sing?

I remember him doing a little singing in Top Gun and it wasn’t all that impressive – or serious!

Adam Shankman, who will direct Ages, tells the Toronto Sun: “I think we’re going to see [Cruise] every drop the rock ‘n’roll god. He’s pouring himself in this part in a way I’ve never had an actor do. It’s pretty intense. Between the voice lessons, the incredible study … researching the period.”

Tom would perform Styx’s Renegade and Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive as well as duet with the female lead (possibly Anne Hathaway) on Foreigner’s I Want to Know What Love Is.

Filming is scheduled to begin in May.

I’m so glad to see Cruise tackling something adventurous like this. He has shown in such films as Magnolia, Interview With a Vampire, Collateral, Eyes Wide Shut, and Tropic Thunder that he can really excel doing something unexpected. He’s a good actor and can do far more than the action flicks he seems to prefer.

His most recent film, Knight and Day, was not a success and it is not a certainty that his next Mission Impossible film will draw crowds since the last one badly underperformed.