After almost 11 years after it originally opened, We Will
Rock You is one of London’s longest running musicals to date. Receiving mostly
bad reviews when it first opened back in 2002 it’s proved to be an audience
favourite and still rocks the Dominion Theatre night after night. Over the
years since its original premier its had loads of productions open all over the
world; places include Australia, Japan, Las Vegas, Spain, Germany, Canada,
Italy, Norway and plenty of other places with a 10th Anniversary
Arena Tour opening at the end of February.
We Will Rock You follows the story of
Scaramouche and Galileo who are outcasts in a world where clones are produced, music
is made by computers and all the GaGa kids watch the same thing and learn the
same moves. Meat and Brit (two ‘bohemians’) find Galileo and Scaramouche and
take them to the heartbreak hotel but they get found out by Khashoggi who is
the right hand man to the leader of the iPlanet, the Killer Queen. In the end
they find an electric guitar and find real rock music and save the world.
Not
going to lie, the plot is awful. Ben Elton must have been on something when he
was writing this as it’s just weird and at times just stupid. I’ve seen the
show quite a few times over the past few years and I noticed he’s made a lot of
changes to the script, this obviously has to be done because they makes references
to modern things but he’s gone way too far and added extra dialog which is just
silly and seems like something they’d say on a Cbeebies TV show. Like for
example this new monologue about the Killer Queen being half woman and half
pixelated... I mean WHAT?! Even though the book is just terrible Ben Elton has
created a show where you really don’t care about the characters or the story
and you are able to just sit back and enjoy your night. And that’s exactly what
you do when you go to this show. Ben Eltons and Arlene Phillips direction is also
very mediocre, nothing special or imaginative but I’m guessing they knew people
who would be seeing the show wouldn’t care about that kind of stuff anyway!
However
Arlene Phillips choreography is brilliant in the show and is still as fresh as
it was 10 years ago thanks to resident Choreographer Giorgia Barberi. The music
is the best thing about this show, obviously the Queen songs used in the show
are just brilliant in every sense anyway but the band play them incredibly, almost
turning the Dominion Theatre into a Rock Arena for the short time you’re in
there.
Oliver Tompsett plays Galileo at the moment and my god is he brilliant!
His vocal are inasne, such an incredible voice and is perfect for the role. He commands
the stage and performs the role brilliantly, has to be one of the best Galileos
ever. His voice is honestly out of this world! Rachael Wooding returns to the
show as Scaramouche having previously played Meat. Her comic timing is
fantastic, she delivers the lines flawlessly and even though the role is played
almost the same whenever a new actress gets cast in it she really brings a new
sass to the role and like Oliver Tompsett her vocals are exceptional.
Kevin
Kennedy plays Pop in the show and for all the 10 minutes he’s on stage he was
alright, nothing majorly impressive and some of his lines he delivers a little strangely
and missed quite a few comedy moments which was disappointing but overall he
was a good addition to the cast. Alasdair Harvey played Khashoggi well, I can’t
say it’s a character I’ve ever actually cared about before but he impressed me.
Brenda Edwards wasn’t at this show so we had Sarah Covey in the role of Killer
Queen, her voice was filled with power and she actually really looked the part.
She really brought out the more powerful side to the Killer Queen rather than a
screechy, pitchy, riffy performance which sometimes happens with the role. For
someone who is making her West End debut in the show she really seems a lot
more experienced than she actually is which is fantastic to watch. Brit is
being played by Wayne Robinson and he brings out the cocky side of the
character really well and paired with Rachel John’s meat they really have a
great relationship on stage which translates really well to an audience. Rachel
John’s ‘No-One but you’ was astounding; the emotion she portrayed was really
touching. Every audience member couldn’t take their eyes off her throughout
that song.
The ensemble in the show has to be one of the strongest in the West
End, filled with some incredibly talented dancers. ‘On Vision’ was one of the
highlights for me, even though it’s obviously a click track the dance in the
song was superb and they worked so well together, I couldn’t single out anyone
as they were all exceptional!
Even though the story of the show is really dreadful,
the show as a piece of entertainment is the best thing out there. If you’re
looking for a night filled with laughs and good music then this is the show for
you, if you’re looking to watch a piece of good theatre that follows theatre practitioners
like Stanislavski then please go nowhere the Dominion.
Rating: ***
We Will Rock You is currently playing at the Dominion
Theatre
Cast Includes: Kevin Kennedy, Alasdair Harvey, Oliver
Tompsett, Rachael Wooding, Brenda Edwards, Wayne Robinson, Rachel John, Ross
Aldred, Louisa Barratt, Adam Bracegirdle, Harriet Bunton, Sarah Covey, Kristy
Cullen, Mark Dugdale, Miriam Elwell-Sutton, Anton Fosh, Ryan Gover, Emma
Hatton, Peter Houston, Matt Jones, Kevin McGuire, John McLarnon, Scott Monello,
Emma O’ Toole, Katie Paine, Jeremy Taylor, Lindsey Tierney, Catlin Ward, Andrew
Simeon, Amanda Ainsley, Charlotte Bull, Matthew Boulton, Phillip Comley, Gemma
Marie, Phillip Ovel and Matt Thorpe.
