"We Will Rock You is a rock musical
with a crucial difference... What distinguishes We Will
Rock You is that it's about rock music. It doesn't take
itself seriously, but it ends up taking rock music just
seriously enough to be (surprise, surprise) moving. The
music is by Queen; Ben Elton has provided the story and
script; Christopher Renshaw directs, with lots of witty
video visuals but mercifully simple scenery... There's a
lot of soul in We Will Rock You, and it's what makes the
show. Even Globalsoft's Killer Queen is a big-black-mama
soul-sister. Galileo and his spiky runaway girlfriend Scaramouche
are romantic rebels in whom soul just keeps rising like
a wellspring. The logic here isn't any too strict - everyone,
baddies and goodies alike, sing Queen music, with scorching
live guitars all round, but the numbers are organised so
that we enjoy the baddies while knowing that the goodies
drink at rock's true fount... The sheer power of the best
Queen numbers strikes hard. The singing is outstanding..."
The Financial Times
"What with 'Bohemian Rhapsody' voted
the nation's favourite single of all time, this was a good
week to open a musical about Queen. They've spent millions
on it - lasers, state-the-art visuals, huge chorus, a band
that sounds like Queen, a script by Ben Elton. But you know
what? The show is so awful it's almost entertaining... The
choreography is by vetern Arlene Phillips and the band belts
out the hits including 'Rhapsody' and 'Radio Ga Ga'. But
Elton's unfunny dialogue and song cues rapidly mash you
in a cow-like trance. Hardcore fans at the front rocked
to it. The rest of you will need ear muffs and a good book..."
The Express
"...Ben Elton, the brains behind the
book, claims to be a rock fan but he has done Queen a disservice
with such a trite and tacky storyline. The set, at least,
is impressive. Sophisticated hydraulics and huge video screens
bearing computer-animated scenes conjure up a colourful,
if rather unimaginative, vision of the future. The choreography
is similarly slick with dancers in cyber-punk outfits carrying
out their duties for the mistress Killer Queen. 'Another
One Bites The Dust' is played out in front of a giant computer
game. With each chorus, another alien ship is blown apart...
Happily though, the songs stay largely true to the originals.
'Under Pressure', 'Killer Queen', 'Somebody To Love' and
'I Want To Break Free' all remind you how fabulous Queen
were and will have even the most curmudgeonly punter tapping
their feet..." The Independent
"...It is hard to take seriously
a story that invokes spirit and individuality when it is
packaged in a spectacle as ruthlessly manufactured as this...
There are compensations. Nigel Planer strikes the right
note of self-irony as Pop, an ageing version of Neil the
hippie. Mark Fisher's design uses mobile digital video screens
creatively to depict the McCulture of the future. The songs
are recreated meticulously. Diehard Queen fans may be satisfied,
although Tony Vincent's soul rebel is something less than
Mercurial. This hi-tech extravaganza perpetrates on Queen's
tunes and the art of the musical precisely the crime Globalsoft
has committed against music. You will find nothing bohemian,
and precious little that's rhapsodic, here." The
Guardian
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