We Will Rock You – Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Posted by: The Reviews Hub
https://www.thereviewshub.com/we-will-rock-you-motorpoint-arena-sheffield/
31/05/2013
Book: Ben Elton
Music/Lyrics: Queen
Director: Tony Edge
4*
In a distant future, the Earth is now known as the i-planet, under the control of Globalsoft. We now live in a virtual world where live music and instruments are banned. Thus is the chilling premise of Ben Elton’s scarily accurate script.
The Gaga kids are all virtual clones but Galileo and Scaramouche are the Dreamer and his “chick” helping to lead the rebellious Bohemians to the place of living rock.
MiG Ayesa and Lauren Samuels reprise their west end rôles of Galileo and Scarmouche interacting well with each other. The character of Scaramouche is easily the best written character with some of the best lines with her witty and sarcastic comments. While Kevin Kennedy and Brenda Edwards take a Busman’s Holiday from the west end production to play Pop and the Killer Queen on the Sheffield leg of the tour. Kennedy is wonderfully comedic and woefully under used as Pop. While his part is important to the plot it’s a shame it’s not larger as he really plays a wonderful part. Ms Edwards is hilarious in her rôle of half pixelated-half human Head of Globalsoft, The Killer Queen, business woman of the year and dynamite with a laser beam. A special mention should also go out to her cleavage defying costumes which she rocks with aplomb.
There are some sound issues with the show, in the first half there are issues with echo when the actors are speaking. There are also problems in some of the songs with the fantastically rocking band drowning out the lyrics of the singers. This is more noticeable with the weaker vocalists and Sean Kingsley’s Khashoggi loses the battle in his rendition of Seven Seas of Rhye. Outstanding vocals of the night must go to Lucie Jones for her character Meats hauntingly beautiful version of Only the Good Die Young, with not a dry eye in the house at the end of the song.
The 10th Anniversary Arena World Tour works well in Sheffield, only half of the arena is in use so the space isn’t much more than a large theatre. The production is wonderfully, interactively enjoyable. Whether a fan of Queen or not, this show has a lot to offer from its fantastic staging, wonderful costumes and energetic singing and dancing.