Earlier this year, on Thursday 16th January, myself, my mum, my boyfriend, dad, gran and auntie all went to Hull New Theatre to see the matinee performance of ‘We Will Rock You’; the hit musical by Ben Elton, celebrating the amazing music of one of the best bands ever in rock history, the one and only, Queen… Please continue reading for a description / review of the performance, with accompanying photography, hope you enjoy! 🙂 🙂

‘We Will Rock You’ smashed London’s Dominion Theatre for a whopping 12 years, (dazzling a record breaking 6.5 million people!) until 31st May 2014. The epic musical, written by Ben Elton, has rocked and toured in 28 countries all around the world, reaching over 16 million viewers in total! [Official WWRY UK and Ireland 2019-2020 programme]. The show has been an absolute triumph in popularity, winning numerous top awards, including Best New Musical in the Theatregoers Choice awards in 2003 and the prestigious Olivier Audience Award in 2011. Now, the 2019-20 touring production showcases a stunning and striking celebration of Queen and their undeniable musical legacy, luckily for us, bringing the exceptional performance to Hull New Theatre in January 2020.

SPOILER ALERT. The basic concept of the story is that ‘Galileo’ and ‘Scaramouche’ (‘Galileo’ being the main protagonist) live in a futuristic cyber world, where musical instruments are forbidden and live rock ‘n’ roll is all but forgotten. ‘Galileo’ is praised by a bunch of rebel Bohemians in a bleak conformist dystopian reality as ‘The Dreamer’ – as he dreams the lyrics of Queen songs! He holds the key to reigniting the rock flame, as the Bohemians fight for the freedom of individuality; to express themselves, to freely exchange fashion and thought – and to feel the exhilaration of listening to live music, to break free – to love, and to love rock, with a champion passion! 🙂 🙂

The musical features, to be expected, all the iconic hit Queen songs, including; ‘Radio Ga Ga’, ‘I Want to Break Free’, ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘A Kind of Magic’, ‘I Want it All’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ in Act One, and ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, and so on, in the second half of the performance. I must say, we were immensely impressed with the vocals of the cast, in particular, Elena Skye, who played ‘Scaramouche’, has an absolutely superb voice in my opinion; she absolutely belted out the high notes, incredible, a very talented young lady. Ian McIntosh, who played the main protagonist ‘Galileo’, brought a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the role, we were equally as enthralled by his portrayal. Jenny O’Leary, playing ‘Killer Queen’, brought the attitude and sass to the adaptation, accompanied by Michael McKell, as the eccentric and charismatic, cheeky Bohemian, ‘Buddy’; delighting us with playful puns and humour.

SPOILER ALERT: Just as we thought the final curtain was to close, ‘Galileo’ raised the roof once more with his wonderful rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, resulting in a very well deserved standing ovation from the audience! 🙂 🙂

Please keep a look out for my next blog post, a description of mine and my boyfriend’s trip to Manchester to see ‘Thriller Live!’, with accompanying photography… Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time! Haha 😛 😛

Thank you as ever for taking the time to read/view, much appreciated.

Peace and love, Lauren xx

 

Further reading / information: 

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/queen/dontstopmenow.html [Accessed 24th February 2020].

[Official WWRY UK and Ireland 2019-2020 programme].

http://www.queenonline.com/wwry [Accessed 19th February 2020].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You_(musical) [Accessed 19th February 2020].

 

(Please visit my Facebook page ‘UnicornPostbox’ to ‘like’ and ‘follow’)

© 2020 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com