We Will Rock You
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It's official.
We Will Rock You will end its run at London's Dominion Theatre on 7 October.
We Will Rock You is set in a futuristic world where musical instruments are banned in an attempt to squash free expression; however, rumours persist that there are musical instruments somewhere, with talk of a special guitar buried within layers of stone. When a group of rebels try to find the guitar, they must put their lives on the line for what they believe in. The show, which has a book by Ben Elton, features 20 of Queen's greatest hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody," "We Are The Champions," "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love."
We Will Rock You, directed by Christopher Renshaw, opened in the West End on 14 May 2002 to mostly negative reviews. When it opened, Caitlin Moran of The London Times wrote about the show: "Queen's songs were not written as part of an ongoing narrative structure. They were just a bunch of silly things that Freddie Mercury came up with at 4am when he was off his face. They certainly weren't written about Ben Elton's concern for how the whole world is currently being ruined by the twin
evils of the Internet and boy bands. Ultimately, for all its stunning looks—the massive plasma-screens are killer-diller, and all the cast have good shoes—
We Will Rock You is just too straight. The script remains little more than two-minute blasts of knob gags and misplaced polemic between songs, and the musical numbers have nothing to do with the script."
Despite its critical reception, We Will Rock You became a huge hit. It even overtook Grease to become the longest running musical ever at the Dominion. The current cast features Jeff Shankley, Hannah Jane Fox, Peter Johansson, Mazz Murray, Alex Bourne, Colin Charles, Jenna Lee-James, Craig Ryder and Paula Clarke.
Following its London closing, We Will Rock You will embark on a U.K. tour.