David and Hannah Mirvish and Gestev/We Will Rock You, music and lyrics by Queen, story and script by Ben Elton, adaptation by Steve Bolton, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, closes Jan. 18. Tickets here.
The manufacturing of We Will Rock You at the moment taking part in in Toronto is a little bit of a shock.
This present, which premiered in London in 2002 and makes use of the music of Queen with a script by British comedian author Ben Elton, labored on in collaboration with guitarist Brian Could and drummer Roger Taylor, arrives right here as a Québec creation.
The French model has toured all through Québec, however it’s shocking that such an elaborate English model has been constructed for a single cease in Toronto, merging the French and English talking casts.
The Story
The premise is a dystopian future run by the Globalsoft Company, the place synthetic intelligence guidelines, and folks don’t even have names, solely numbers.
The Killer Queen (Maggie Lacasse) and her henchman Khashoggi (Patrick Olafson) management all the pieces, and actual music is banned.
Within the Badlands, nevertheless, there’s a group referred to as the Bohemians amongst whom are Axl (Laurence Champagne), Ozzy (Peter Deiwick) and Brit (Caleb Ajao) who imagine that rock and roll as soon as lived, and so they look forward to the Dreamer who will unlock the Lengthy Misplaced Sacred Instrument and restore actual music.
One numbered youth (Callum Lurie) hears stray lyrics in his head. These lyrics are from the Beatles, the Seashore Boys, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and lots of others. Their randomness is hilarious to the viewers, however he doesn’t perceive them.
He names himself Galileo Figaro and, with a younger lady he calls Scaramouche (Paige Foskett), he escapes to the Badlands, the place the Bohemians imagine he’s the prophesied Dreamer.
The Queen songs themselves match into the plot, all the time tied to how characters really feel. Whether or not it’s Killer Queen raging at their escape or the younger rebels discovering individuality, the songs are positioned to underline the second.
The Manufacturing
I noticed We Will Rock You years in the past, and I don’t recollect it being as dazzling as this.
Technically, this manufacturing is extraordinary. The scenic and visible parts are futuristic, with astonishing lighting, modernist costumes, and video know-how that plunge the viewers right into a techno world.
The reprogramming scenes are particularly putting, and the Badlands look believably decayed by way of the graphics. It’s gorgeously produced.
The person behind this idea is Steve Bolton, primarily a choreographer, so there’s motion in all places. The Globalsoft scenes are inflexible and synchronized, whereas the Badlands scenes are extra open and rounded. There may be all the time one thing to observe.
This manufacturing of We Will Rock You is the proper instance the place one man has directed, choreographed and envisioned the look of the piece to make it a steady complete, and the symmetry is apparent.
As soon as Once more, the Curse of Diction
I’m not accustomed to Queen, so diction is important for me, however solely Callum Lurie as Galileo Figaro had clear diction.
The one strains I really understood had been “We are going to rock you” and “We’re the champions.” The remaining was muddied, which is a continuing irritant for me besides when British musicals tour, as a result of their diction is all the time glorious.
The Ending
Within the authentic British manufacturing, the Sacred Instrument was hidden at Wembley Stadium. Right here, appropriately for a Québec created model, it’s at Graceland the place Elvis, the King of Rock lived, and the graphic of the ruined mansion behind its gates is kind of putting.
When the Dreamer remembers the Instrument, the electrical guitar emerges from the stone gates and Axl riffs convincingly on it.
The viewers waits for “We Will Rock You” and when it comes, glow sticks wave, and everybody joins in. It segues into, in fact, a rousing refrain of “We Are the Champions”.
A Particular Curtain Name
Throughout the curtain name, Axl declares that amongst all the traditional rock songs, one was cherished finest, and your entire firm, together with Killer Queen and Khashoggi, performs a trimmed down Bohemian Rhapsody. Even I acknowledged it and the viewers adored it.
Remaining Ideas
The half I cherished most was each time the Dreamer was overtaken by the random lyrics working by way of his head. These I acknowledged, and people stream of aware previous rock lyrics had been very humorous certainly.
The present is mildly amusing, positively entertaining, and nicely carried out. It holds up nicely and is actually dazzling to observe.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, significantly on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.
