We Will Rock You

WHILE using the songs of British rock band Queen to help tell a story about life in a future world might seem to be unworkable, this a very enjoyable musical, with writer Ben Elton helping to make it gripping, funny and swinging. And the staging by director Julie Black and her team added to the pleasure, with the costumes, sets, lighting and occasional projections giving the Earth (here known as iPlanet) a very different look to what we see around us, and the small band and large singing ensemble in the orchestra pit boosting the sound.

The characters are a diverse bunch. Galileo (Dave Geise) is a graduating student who hears long lost lyrics and declares his refusal to conform in I Want to Break Free, with a female classmate, Scaramouche (Bec Kynaston), sharing his feelings. The nature of the rulers is shown by the unsmiling Killer Queen (Wendy Ratcliffe), in a song that has her name, and she is backed by Khashoggi (Dain Watts), a not very efficient head of police. The Bohemians, the rebels who want to have a better life, are brightly led by Brit (Brett Edman) and Oz (Nicolette Black), who show their hopes in I Want It All and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, in which they are joined by Galileo and Scaramouche.Another key character is Buddy (Michael King), an elderly librarian who is trying to establish when the music died. In this show, however, the music was very much alive.

Buddy certainly showed that, when singing These Are the Days of Our Lives while pouring drinks for the Bohemians in the Hard Rock Cafe, with them sharing his enthusiasm for the more relaxing way they could be living. So it wasn’t surprising that the fight for freedom had a very enthusiastic response from the younger inhabitants of iPlanet when Galileo subsequently led them in declaring that We Are the Champions.

The show was staged in the very large Civic Theatre, and I saw it on opening night in one of the front rows of the stalls, with the performers’ delivery and movements having me feeling like one of the participants. So I saw it a second time, sitting in the circle and looking down towards the stage. It was just as gripping and had me further appreciating all aspects of the show, as I could see features of the costumes, make-up, hairstyles, and sets that I hadn’t noticed when closer.

Ken Longworth