We Will Rock You

Wednesday 28th February 2007, Matinee Performance
Dominion Theatre

Written by Ben Elton and based on the music of Queen, We Will Rock You is widely considered to be the first west end smash hit, considering that it is currently in it’s fifth year at the Dominion Theatre.

What’s it about?
Set in a fictional future, where individuality and live music are no longer allowed, a prophecy tells of a “dreamer” who will lead the bohemians to bring music back to life.
The dreamer in question, is Galileo, a young man who hears “strange phrases” in his head, joining Galileo on his quest is the spunky Scaramouche as they try to hide from the evil Killer Queen and her lead henchman Khashoggi.

What’s good?
Very little about We Will Rock You is genuinely good, the cast do what they can with an incredibly weak script and puerile direction from Ben Elton. Apart from that, there is little to cheer about for We Will Rock You.

What’s bad?
We Will Rock You has many flaws to it; for starters the songs are performed in a pantomime- esque style reminiscent somewhat of a Butlins karaoke show. The show also features an incredibly poor selection of Queen’s legendary repertoire. With a number of songs seemingly included in the show purely for show. As a result We Will Rock You is effectively a very expensive tribute concert.

Overall
It is my firm belief that the show posses’ the potential to be great, however the script needs to be written to set it in a sensible tone, the suggestion was made to me that the show is just “Tongue- in- cheek” however, I have seen a vast number of theatrical shows and We Will Rock You is most definitely one of the most pathetic excuses for a show that I have ever seen. We Will Rock You will probably last a few more years on the west end, such is the status of Queen, however, it is this reviewer’s belief that Queen really should finally lay their music to rest before their reputation is changed from musical legends to a band who out- stayed their time by a few decades.