all the big hits from Queen<\/a>, including We Are The Champions, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Somebody To Love, Killer Queen, etc \u2014 mostly scrunched into scenes where they barely relate to the action, or worse, become bookended with glaringly spurious dialogue to aid transition.<\/p>\nTo further confound singalong audiences, there’s also some needless tinkering with the lyrics to make them resonate within the featherweight narrative:<\/p>\n
#All we hear is: \nCyberspace Ga Ga, \nMarketing blah blah…#<\/p>\n
Such an improvement.<\/p>\n
But within this hastily malformed confection, there’s still some hope if not a lot of wasted talent. Michael McKell pitches Buddy \u2014 a sort of Mick Jagger waif \u2014 with some fruitful comedy timing, and there’s an earnest run of vocal work from principals Adam Strong, Ian McIntosh and Elena Skye.<\/p>\n
The production is also heavily resourced with impressive animated videowalls, giving the landscape a dynamic, Tron-like technological vibe. And there’s no escaping the thunderingly loud musical arrangement which establishes an element of stadium scale.<\/p>\n
Sadly there’s no hiding some of the baggy choreography at work here though, and relentlessly inane dialogue with unfunny, crass jokes does little to support the hardworking cast in the lull between musical numbers.<\/p>\n
We Will Rock You demonstrates how not to refashion outstanding source material into the musical medium. Lazily repackaged into a mass-market product which bleaches the bones out of the original work, this prefab compilation of greatest hits relies too heavily on its music and hopes its punters will overlook the poverty of its scripting. That said, it will probably still entertain those with a vague appreciation of Queen’s hits \u2014 and the final number should ensure many leave on something of a nostalgic and wistful high.<\/p>\n
Cast<\/span><\/strong>: Jenny O\u2019Leary, Michael McKell, Adam Strong, David-Michael Johnson, Amy Di Bartolomeo.<\/span>\u00a0Director:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Cornelius Baltus<\/span>\u00a0Theatre<\/span><\/strong>: Leeds Grand Theatre<\/span>\u00a0Running time:<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>150\u00a0minutes<\/span>\u00a0Dates<\/span><\/strong>: Monday 11th to Saturday 23rd November 2019.<\/span><\/p>\nTickets: Visit<\/span>\u00a0leedsgrandtheatre.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or call the Box Office on 0844 848 2700.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Elton’s Queen musical is revived for a new national tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1251872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[675],"tags":[36061,37173,10706,8642,37172,25979,12949,32386,11430,7105,34928,32385,19528],"yoast_head":"\n
We Will Rock You review - Entertainment Focus<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n