VIDEO: Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll at Huntington Theatre

Before Bono made himself king -- or at least crowned himself rock and roll's official ambassador to the Universe -- the most internationally influential rock star, on a policy level at least, was Lou Reed. If there'd been a Secretary of State for 20th-century "alternative" rock, it woulda been Lou, since the Velvet Underground, as everyone knew, had helped topple Communism in the Czech Republic, where they seemed to have held a cultural sway that was vastly out of proportion to what they held such cultural backwaters as, say, the United States. Havel was a big fan -- hell, he even named the damn revolution after them! And of course there were the Plastic People of the Universe, the Velvets' official behind-the-bloc knockoff band. (Or, as the Boston Globe dismissively calls them, "a little Czech group.")

The Plastic People have a central but offscreen role in Tom Stoppard's play Rock N Roll, which is up at the Huntington Theatre through December 13 and is very likely the only thing on the boards at the BU Theatre this season that comes with its own iTunes soundtrack.Below, Phoenix theater editor Carolyn Clay tells you what's good, with video clips from the play: