With so many Bohemians, there had to be a Rhapsody! (We Will Rock You)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	We Will Rock You
Date:	28/05/09 (196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: enargetic exciting show

Disadvantages: none

At Christmas, we were lucky enough to be given a Red Letter Day experience as a present. Our gift was dinner and a theatre trip for two and we decided to go to We Will Rock you at the Dominion Theatre in London, which is where you would have found my husband and me yesterday. It's a fabulous show bursting with music and energy based on the wonderful music of Queen.

The Dominion Theatre is very easy to get to as it is directly by one of the exits of Tottenham Court Road tube station on the Northern and Central lines. You really can't miss it! The evening show starts at 7.30 pm but it is wise to get there quite a bit earlier especially if you need to pick up tickets. The theatre does not look much from the outside, but inside it has all the décor and ambience that you would expect from any traditional theatre. It also seems to have a very large capacity as we estimated that there were probably at least 1500 people watching the show last night if not a lot more!

We didn't pay for our tickets obviously but I did notice that the top seats were £60 which I guess is what you might expect in the West End. Our programme cost £4 which again was OK but you could have spent more on a souvenir brochure. We also didn't buy any refreshments so I can't comment on those but I don't suppose the drinks would have come cheap. I was very impressed as well, that on my two visits to the Ladies, neither time did I have to queue for very long!

The actual story of We Will Rock You is really quite contrived in order to fit round Queen's massive hits but that does not seem to matter as the show is much more of an experience. I'm not sure if I really understood it all but this is what I thought it was all about! The story is set about 300 years in the future where all music and musical instruments are banned. There are many clone like people who are the GaGas and they are very shallow types. However there are one or two rebels, namely Galileo and Scaramouche, and it is their quest to find the 'real music'. They need to escape the dictates of the Killer Queen and her minion Khashoggi. They discover a group of bohemians who are all doing their best to keep the music alive and have all taken on the persona of long ago rock and pop stars such as MeatLoaf and Britney Spears! It all sounds rather crazy doesn't it but then again it is written by Ben Elton! There are also many funny moments with a great deal of offbeat humour! As I said, it is a bit of a mad story but if you go with the flow you will really enjoy it!

Obviously, it is the Queen songs that make it, and if you are of an age to remember the height of their success it will make a very nostalgic evening. It really is a must for all Queen fans! What is particularly good is that lots of audience participation is encouraged and by the end you find yourself swaying, arm swinging, clapping and singing along to such great classics as We Will Rock You, Radio GaGa and We are the Champions! It really is a lot of fun! It's a bit bizarre sometimes how some of the songs fit in with the story but it does seem to work.

The choreography is amazing in this show. The choreographer was Arlene Phillips and I think she put the movements together superbly! There are some great group dances but what I liked was watching different members of the ensemble and seeing how everyone had slightly different moves to each other that all somehow fitted together.

The show is also an amazing spectacle to watch. The lighting is fantastic although sometimes quite in your face too! All the scenery shifted seamlessly and there was great use made of projected images. Characters kept appearing and disappearing through the floor and there was also an amazing surf board shape which lifted up from the floor and rotated bringing the actors directly over the front rows of the audience's heads! I loved all the costumes - some were very futuristic but my favourites were the Bohemian costumes when they all dressed as different musicians. There were tons of different things going on all the time which really kept you captivated from beginning to end.

All the main performances were excellent and particularly I liked Ricardo Afonso as Galileo, Garry Lake as Pop and Sabrina Aloueche as Scaramouche. I was also interested to see that Rachel Tucker (who came fourth in I'd Do Anything! Last year) has the role of Meat which really is a far cry from the role of Nancy, but she was really excellent too. I think in any musical though, it is all the members of the ensemble that really make it and they all performed with great passion and energy, as well as having many costume changes to manage too! Also, don't forget the musicians! They definitely weren't forgotten here and even cam eon stage and took a bow with all the cast members at the end!

I really enjoyed all the singing and by the end I didn't think I could clap anymore. All the cast had taken their final bows and I was just about to get up and leave when my husband whispered to me -'but they haven't sang Bohemian Rhapsody!' Well I was just about to start feeling a bit short changed when a message was projected on the screen asking - 'Do you want to hear Bohemian Rhapsody?' Well, there was a wild cheering from the audience and there we had it - the best Queen song ever and a wonderful and fitting finale!

As I came out of the theatre I could not stop smiling and really felt that I wanted to sing all the Queen songs on my way home - and I hadn't even been drinking!

Summary: A fantastic night out!