Customer Reviews

We Will Rock You: Rock Theatrical / O.C.R

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reviewing a soundtrack to a show that is currently running only in England is a unique experience indeed. Almost as unique as the show itself, although the idea behind it seems like the next big innovation in musical theater: taking a band's pre-existing repertoire of songs, often already well-known and well-liked, and using those as book numbers in musicals, often with a creative plot. It worked for Abba in "Mamma Mia," and it worked for Billy Joel in "Movin' Out." I have no doubt in my mind that Queen's "We Will Rock You" will cross the Atlantic very shortly, so before it does, let me say this:

I have seen the future of musical theater.

And I have been rocked.

It helps if you're already a fan of Queen, as I was, to really appreciate and GET this show, but even someone who doesn't know Freddy Mercury from Mick Jagger can still enjoy this phenomenal new musical. Seeing it live (twice) also helped me to enjoy the album, but seeing as how it was recorded from a live performance, you still get the feeling of being in the theater.

I'm not going to tell you the plot -- if you're reading this, then you have access to the internet and can find the plot on any search engine. What's more, you can almost deduce it from the structure of the songs - a phenomenal credit to Ben Elton, who wrote the book, seeing as how the songs predate the play by two decades. I will, however, say that you will be hard-pressed to hear voices as rocking as these on any other musical soundtrack, with the possible exception of "RENT." But compared to Queen, even the rock sensiblities of Jonathan Larsen fall short.

The one downfall to those who get the soundtrack is that they don't get the opportunity to actually SEE the actors, who, believe me, are every bit as sexy and irrestistable as their voices imply. The breakout stars are Tony Vincent, as the loner dork-cum-sexy guitar hero Galileo Figaro, and Kerry Ellis as Meat. (But you can call her Ms. Loaf.) These two actors steal every scene they're in, and quite frankly, rock like no one has rocked before. Those who caught the 2001 production of Jesus Christ Superstar will remember Tony Vincent as Judas, or Simon Zealot (whom he plays on the video.)

The play did not remind me of anything, because I have never seen anything quite like it before. While Tony Vincent was unabashedly American, most everyone else had a British, Irish, or Scottish accent, a charming effect that, sadly, I'm sure will not be present when it comes to New York. I encourage anyone who either wants to hear a fresh, new, exciting musical score, or have a nostalgic return to some of your favorite Queen songs performed by a fresh crew of amazing young vocalists, to check this album out.

Believe me, it will rock you.

Then it will make you a champion.

And then it will rock you just a little bit more.

Taking its cue from the success of "Mamma Mia!", "We Will Rock You" takes another mega-famous 70's group, Queen, and forces its hit songs into a convoluted story to create a musical with nostalgic appeal. The plot has something to do with a futuristic world where music is banned, thus forcing the "bohemians" to rebel against their oppressors to bring rock music to all, or... something like that. The story definitely gets muddled on this album. It really doesn't matter, though- the plot is just an excuse to showcase some familiar hit songs. To that extent, I think a lot of Queen fans and musical fans (not that the two are mutually exclusive) will get a kick out of this enjoyable live recording.

Many of Queen's biggest hits are here ("Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "We are the Champions," etc.), and they're sung with great flair by a talented cast. Tony Vincent, from the Broadway revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar," stars, and he's an impressive vocalist. He and the rest of the performers bring conviction and a ton of energy to the songs, and the result is undeniably exciting.

Even though the artistic merits of so-called "jukebox" musicals can be questionable, the recording of "We Will Rock You" is kind of refreshing. There's really nothing pretentious about it. It just wants to, well, ROCK you. It succeeds.

Ahh. It was SO GOOD. I've been a huge fan of musical theatre for a long time, and ended up going to see the show because I won tickets. (Somehow, when you live in Las Vegas, it's kind of hard to convince yourself to pay 120 bucks a ticket.) But let me just say, now that I've seen it, I would and probably will go to see it again. It was absolutely AMAZING. So, I decided that clearly, the next step was to buy the soundtrack.
This takes me right back. They've done a wonderful job, and because it was recorded live, it doesn't lose that spark. I would reccomend seeing the show to anybody. Even someone who's never heard a Queen song (Which is quite frankly a little hard to imagine.) would love this. And what do you do after you've seen the show?
Buy this CD! (Then play it all the time, sing the songs where ever you go, and get wierd looks from strangers. ...Or is that just me?)

Just trust me on this one, if you liked the show, or just Queen in general, buy this. ^^

`We will rock you' follows the suit Abba successfully made in the past with their musical `Mamma Mia': putting excellent household-known songs on stage in the form of a musical. There is no need to ramble too much over the meaning, impact and place the English rock band `Queen' and their lead singer Freddie Mercury have in the history of modern music: millions of sold records, an everlasting fan base and hit songs ranging from `Bohemian Rhapsody' to `Those were the days of our lives' are enough to mention.

Two out of three original surviving members of the band, Brian May and Roger Taylor teamed up with a well know English writer and comedian Ben Elton and Robert DeNiro himself as a producer to transfer `Queen's' hits to the stage in form of a story. The result is an entertaining and vivid 3-hour show called `We will rock you'. After its premiere in London's Dominion theatre, it has been filling the seats of this huge place (one might even consider it as a concert hall) night after night and the show was successfully transferred to Spain, Las Vegas, Russia, Germany and Japan.

Ben Elton wrote an interesting futuristic story. The action takes place 300 years in the future. The completely globalized world is run by a cyberspace company called `Globalsoft' presided by The Killer Queen. All the musical instruments and music composing, apart from the one created by the computer programs are banned. A group of young rebels oppose such state and led by a young Galileo Figaro and his girl Scaramouche try to find the instruments and introduce to the world the sound of rock and roll that has been long gone from everyone's mind. This may sound as a trashy plot, but it works surprisingly well on the stage. The actions of the main characters are told through numerous `Queen' hit songs: `Killer Queen', `I want to break free', `Who wants to live forever', `A kind of magic', `Another one bites the dust', `Radio Ga Ga' and `Bohemian Rhapsody' to name just a few. Apart from that, Ben Elton wrote the additional dialogue to further explain the story and for this he has come up with some of his most funny lines. The theatre audience kept bursting into giggling during the performance I attended, whether it's about the mentioning Brittney Spears, Victoria Beckham or Lord of the rings.

This cast recording featuring the original cast members was recorded live during one of the performances at Dominion Theatre. And even though it includes all the main musical numbers and somewhat evokes the great atmosphere of this show, it does not satisfy completely. The main problem stems from the fact its singers do not have the top vocal power this kind of music simply must have. Tony Vincent, who plays Galileo here, is not a bad vocalist, but here he is too thin, and almost unnoticeable, very much unlike the current Galileo in London, the Swedish-born Peter Johansson. Vincent also makes a habit of singing with a deliberate and rather annoying echo in his voice. Sharon D Clarke's Killer Queen is only a slight improvement, yet miles away from Mazz Murray's freezing vocals in the current cast. Hannah Jane Fox makes a very good Scaramuche, one must admit. One of the unwritten rules of the musical theatre has been that inappropriate (or shall we say for this occasion, a rather average) casting can hurt and ruin the best of materials (if you want the best of examples, try the 1994 LA recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's `Sunset Boulevard' with Glenn Close singing the lead). This recording alas confirms that fact.

But if one can put aside all that, what you do get on this CD is a very good instrumental rendition of `Queen's' greatest hits delivered by a disappointing cast. It would be interesting to hear this material with different people singing the roles. The CD comes with the production photos, cast and creative time listings, but with no lyrics or a synopsis. `Queen' aficionados will note some minor lyrical changes made to fit the plot.

The show is a miracle to see and hear live on stage and the experience will stay with you for a long time. In the end, however, it deserves a much better recording if it wishes to match it.

I enjoyed the opening night performance of this show at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas (Aug 2004)......it was fantastic....Brian May stuck around after the show to sign autographs was gracious and took time with anyone who wanted to shake his hand. The musicians in this show are star quality in their own right. The story line has been revised to the Las Vegas venue which actually works very, very well.
When in Las Vegas don't miss this show....but they do say they will be touring the U.S. I'll be watching the Broadway calendar!

My wife and I saw this musical in London over Christmas 2003 and it was wonderful. This audio track captures the essence of what we saw at Dominion Theatre. I have always been a fan of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but this musical definitely refreshes your memory. I wish there were a DVD of the entire performance.

I hope Brian May appreciates the fact that after I saw the musical, I bought every Queen album I could find. It is on all the time here and in the car.

I bought my copy of the sound track from Amazon UK for a lesser price than is offered here and delivered to me in the USA in four days.

I just bought our plane tickets back to London for Christmas 2004 and two tickets to WWRY for the Boxer Day matinee.

Great Stuff!!

I am a lover of all theatrical shows, so I'm not disappointed, as it's a good CD. However, I got it because I thought Mig was on the CD. He's not. He did play Gallelio, but later, replacing the actor on the CD. Just didn't want anyone else to make the same mistake I did. The CD is good, though.

I saw this musical at the Dominion Theatre in the West End and it was truly amazing, unlike any musical I've been to before. The audience was rocking out, waving glowsticks, clapping, and singing along by the time the cast sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the end. The soundtrack perfectly captures the fun of the show, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. The only downside is that "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is omitted, quite strangely given its prominence in the show and its popularity in general. Still, the CD is entirely worth buying AND the show is definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.

I saw the premier performance of the preview of this musical in London at the Dominion Theater. I thought they did a wonderful job for their first performance and would see the musical again. This CD was recorded over a month after the show that I saw and all I can say is "wow" they have done a good job refining the small details in the songs. The quality of everything is worth listening to again and again with this CD. If you get a chance to see it in Vegas or London I suggest seeing the musical, if not buy this recording and listen to it.

The handful of popular acts that have translated their music into musical productions (Queen here and The Who's Tommy come to mind), have done a respectable job. Interesting, pleasant productions that surely do not take the place of the original recordings. Don't expect as much.

These musicals are based on stories, of course, written by a playwright or author or producer, often with the help of the original artist. The stories, then, are based on the songs--so, the question remains, how do you fit a story around seemingly unrelated songs?

The answer here is to change the lyrics to fit the story. Much of the lyrics are changed to fit in the storyline. Queen purists will scoff at this, yet some may find the changes interesting. All the songs do follow a narrative now--they connect. As a fan, I find it both frustrating and nice. Frustrating, because I want to hear the original, but nice because the changed lyrics (and sometimes arrangements) add something else to the songs.

As a musical performance, the band does just fine. Brian May and Roger Taylor don't perform, but are on board as musical directors. Queen's crack sound quality team is also on this release, so I can't complain about that--it's very good.

Take it or leave it, I guess. If you like Queen, and want to hear their songs in a different light, I recommend this CD. If not, stick to the originals.