We Will Rock You

This production will rock your socks off. The enthusiasm and talent of the mainly young cast is palpable, from the opening to the very last seconds.

Even as the curtain had almost descended for the last time, the leading man Gareth Keegan (Galileo) was crouched down to milk one last note for the audience.

We Will Rock Youis described by Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor as a rock theatrical, rather than a musical. It’s a celebration of their band’s music with a science fiction flavour. It has its idiosyncrasies  – much like The Rocky Horror Show.

The ‘theatrical’ is set some time in the future when rock music is banned and a group of rebels strive to revive the artform under pressure from a totalitarian state (little do the rebels know that they have singing rock music all the way along).

The outlaws name themselves after long dead rock stars who they know little about. One of the best gags in the show comes when the audience is introduced to Britney Spears.

Writer Ben Elton has updated the book, throwing in Australian jokes and integrating social media paradigms which weren’t invented when the show opened in 2002. It is a tighter and funnier show than last time. The first act is dominated with every rock pun you could wish to dream up. The second act blossoms after the introduction of romance into the script.

We Will Rock You provides rock diva moments a plenty for its cast. The females steal the show Erin Clare gets us in the mood with her sexy renditions of “Somebody to Love” and “You’re My Best Friend”. Casey Donovan is always electric as the Killer Queenand Jaz Flowers shines in “I Want It All” and “No-One But You”.

It’s a bit like the final of Australian Idol, with each contestant throwing in a blinder.

Brian Mannix was very cool and comfortable in his role as the aging rocker Buddy. Ben Elton couldn’t resist giving his old band The Uncanny X – Men a plug.

The principals were ably supported by an ensemble of triple threats.

The set, laser light show and video screen were suitably futuristic – prompting a sing along (as a curtain call) for the song "Bohemian Rhapsody". The cast was having as much fun as the opening night audience.

David Spicer

Boy meets girl, meets rock, meets 1984 panto-style, meets every popular music pun, in a dystopian futuristic world where rock’n’roll is outlawed, and relationships and friendships only happen on the internet - with legendary rock band Queen’s Greatest Hits (and the odd lesser known song) providing a scintillating score.

Will you leave the theatre humming the tunes? Doesn't humming sound a bit sedate for the rock music you’ve been pumping out with your hair-brush mic or tennis racquet guitar forever.

Such a rock celebration is We Will Rock You, as well as a joyous display of Australian musical theatre talent, that the script’s far too many rock puns, with song titles strung together as dialogue, are swept aside in a show where it’s Queen’s classic rock music, performed live, and larger than life, that really counts.

The uber-talented cast and band rock the Lyric Theatre to its foundations.

Neil Litchfield

Photographer: Jeff Busby