We Will Rock You young@part

We Will Rock You (young@part) is a musical written by Ben Elton with music and lyrics by Queen. It is set 300 years in the future and Ben Elton created an entirely fictional storyline within which to place the rock anthems. Planet Earth has been transformed into Planet Mall and is controlled by the Globalsoft Corporation and its boss, the Killer Queen, who have banned innovative music, musical instruments and creative thought. She has heard of a rebellion led by ‘The Dreamer’ and orders her Chief of Police, Khashoggi, to crush any such rebellion. Galileo and Scaramouche, two outsiders, cannot come to terms with the bleak conformist reality and go on a quest, with the help of Buddy, in an attempt to overthrow Globalsoft and search to find the unlimited power of freedom, love and Rock and hopefully find Rock’s Hole Grail - Brian May’s guitar - so that rock music can thrive again. 

We first meet the wonderful Ga Ga kids, dressed all in white with the Ga Ga logo on their tops, each had a different coloured luminous wig and all were wearing sunglasses, as they sing ‘Radio Ga Ga’ accompanied by very stylised movements. Galileo was outstandingly played by Finn Eden. What an amazing singing voice he has, so suited the nuances of Rock. His first song ’I Want Break Free’ was just so powerfully and so movingly delivered as in fact were all the other many songs he sang. His acting skills were equally as good and there was a lovely chemistry between him and Scaramouche who was also superbly played by Abi Ashforth. She too has a wonderful singing voice and their duets were just top-notch none more so ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ which was heart-rendering. Whilst Galileo is more of a confused dreamer Scaramouche is much more of an oddity and Abi brought out the cynicism and humorous side of the character exquisitely. They were a great pairing. Another brilliant performance came from Darcey Booth as Killer Queen. Again she has an excellent and powerful singing voice and she definitely was the boss portraying the arrogant, commanding attitude and no nonsense characteristics of the role to perfection. All three wore stunning outfits as befitted their individual roles. Her Chief of Police was played splendidly by Flori Simms and what she didn’t have in stature she definitely made up for with a ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude. She was very much an authoritative leader carrying out the demands of Killer Queen. I loved her outfit of silver trousers, silver wig and sunglasses. Flori was a small package of ‘dynamite’. Oz Played by Mia Lowe and Brit Played by Jasmine Carrington were perfect as ‘rock chicks’ and their singing of ‘I Want it All’ was super and Freddie Levesley, wonderfully kitted out in a kilt, was excellent as Buddy. These seven principal roles were all played by exceptionally talented young people each playing the individual traits of their character so amazingly but they did need support and it was there aplenty. The Teen Queens, Emily Woodward, Bethany Barnes, Phoebe Levesley, Eva Moss, Leah Spencer and Lily Lowe were just delightful and adding so much to the whole show were twenty-five youngsters, of various ages, forming the ‘ensemble’ as it were, some of them had little cameo singing or speaking roles. All the wonderful and over sixteen ‘Queen’ numbers were outstandingly sung either by individuals, duettists, small groups or by the whole chorus and exceedingly enhanced by terrific stylised dancing. When they do find ‘the guitar’ Scaramouche brilliantly ‘plays’ it and Galileo takes up a mike and amazingly sings ‘We Will Rock You’ with the inevitable stamping of feet by the ensemble which, of course, the audience too, joined in with. This was followed  by ‘We Are The Champions’. After the ‘Bows’ Galileo asked the audience if we wanted more - ‘Yes we do! The whole cast then sang ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, this was an absolutely tremendous and energetic finish to the show. 

There was no set as such just two blocks either side of the stage that turned for different scenarios with the addition of various props. Towards the end of the show two magnificent wrought iron gates were brought on which were then opened and revealed in one of the blocks was - ‘the guitar’ which was when ‘We Will Rock You’ was sung. A screen covered the whole back of the stage on which were displayed superb complimentary images provided by Mark Dennison and Darren Salt who were responsible for the Projection Design and Operation. The costumes (Stacey Hyndman & Team) were just fabulous and excellent lighting (Paul Frost) and sound (Nigel Johnson) all added to the whole ambience. Many congratulations to Director Jen Lewis, to Producer Stacey Hyndman, to Musical Director Rob Mosley, to Choreographer Sharon Stringer and Co-Choreographer Danni Stringer to Production Assistant Abbie Rowen, to Stage Manager Richard Poole and of course, every accolade must go to the outstanding and extremely talented principals and to the wonderful ‘ensemble’. It was indeed a most impressive and awesome production which I thoroughly enjoyed, and you all most definitely were - ‘Champions’. Many thanks also for the warm welcome that I received.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.