Whole cast. Credit: Steve Spurgin
By Tim Saunders
Queen aficionados have until this Saturday (Oct 24) to don their big hair and glittery rock costumes and visit Kings Theatre Portsmouth to celebrate one of the most influential rock bands in history.
We Will Rock You – the smash hit musical features the hits of this legendary rock group formed in London in 1970 with Freddie Mercury (lead singer and pianist), Brian May (guitar and vocals), Roger Taylor (drums and vocals), who were later joined by John Deacon (bass). The background sound to my childhood, they sold an estimated 250 to 300 million records globally. Their music is considered so important that in 2024 Sony Music bought their whole catalogue and recording rights for £1bn. This record-breaking deal sits alongside massive earnings from the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic (which grossed over £500m worldwide) and decades of high-grossing tours and merchandise.
With its futuristic story and script by comedian Ben Elton, We Will Rock You takes aim at the changing music industry as he saw it in 2002 and how it had declined due to shows like X Factor. This has only get worse in my opinion. Where is the modern day Queen? What have we got? Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.
The show celebrates the concept of the rock music genre. To think that Queen wrote nearly all of their songs. You can’t imagine that happening today when even the likes of even Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber resort to AI. Shame on you. Writing and producing your own music with real instruments rather than computers is a dying skill – just visit any school music room for confirmation – and it needs reversing immediately. Save precious creativity.
With technology in mind the traditional scenery has been replaced with digital imagery and the introduction features text that my music loving children: guitarist son, Henry (10) and pianist daughter, Heidi (13), read but would prefer not to. Heidi will be taking her Grade 4 exam in November and finds herself tapping the pulse to the tunes, all very good practice for her aural.
We are treated to the hits we’ve grown to love including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, of course We Will Rock You, Under Pressure but my favourite, I Want It All.
The 22 strong cast deliver a high energy performance throughout. Costumes are well considered and the lighting plays an important part alongside the occasional flame that shoots up, all of which add to the drama. Notable performances from Galileo (Charlie Frame), Scaramouche (Megan Parkes) and Oz (Georgie-Rose Rust).
When the orchestra appears it has to be the best part of the show for us – they are a real joy to see. We’d have liked to have seen much more of them including the guitarist who emulates Brian May, one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Reading the programme it is heartening to see that there’s such support for Portsmouth Theatres, which runs the historic Kings Theatre. Patrons include actor and comedian Hugh Dennis and Fred Dinenage, who happens to be sitting just a couple of rows in front of us.
