by Ian Diddams
images by Trevor Porter & Claire Borovac
Juke box musicals tend to be little more than a string of hits, loosely linked together by a fairly weak storyline, and it must be said “We Will Rock You” breaks no moulds in this regard. However, Queen’s wonderful music provides a joyous couple of hours wrapped around a tale of a dystopian future where real music has been replaced by a totalitarian approach to manufactured music allied to an oppressive state a.k.a. Globalsoft, where a bunch of outcasts and renegades run a guerrilla style existence hunted by the security forces on a renamed earth – now iPlanet. A sort of melange of Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” meets “2112” by Rush in a “Robin Hood’s Merry men” saga with Star Wars’ vibes topped with a King Arthur reference, all vaguely linked by Freddie and friends. It must also be mentioned, and applauded, that the references and jokes have been kept contemporary since its initial scripting twenty-five years ago.
It’s a challenging show to undertake – firstly the iconic status of the music, and the unique styles of Mercury’s voice wrapped up in what is really a tribute act turned into a stage show. Secondly Ben Elton’s acerbic wit as the jokes, knob gags, and satire come thick and fast. And not to omit, in this glorious heatwave we are enjoying at the moment, thirdly the cast, band and crew sweltering away during the show! But Trowbridge Musical Theatre (TMT) with their typically large cast of almost forty members deliver the show at St. Augustine’s this week with style, energy and smiles galore, directed by Petra Schofield and produced by Maria Matthews.
The set (“Bright”) is simple but effective providing multiple height levels and stage depth; sound and lighting (Harry Sandford, Chris Sealy & Harry Weissenbruch, and Ryo Rosemann) provided top effects and follow spot, and the standard excellence of the back stage management and crew (Chris Isaacson, Nicky Runyeard-Hunt, Cameron Runyeard-Hunt, Bernice Hudson, Stewart Langford) kept everything smoothly ticking along; the sign of a good back stage crew is that you never know they are there – plaudits to them. Costumes, hair and make-up are an “unseen” team, although their input is critical to a show’s success and Karen Grant, Sandra Tucker, Lucy Adeney and Lyn Taylor deserve kudos in this area.
As a jukebox musical of course the band are an all-important and integral part of the show, so step forward Musical Director (Helen Heaton), keyboards (Helen Heaton and Sian Noctor), guitars (David May and Ben Jones), bass (Owen Heaton), drums (Alex Kemp) and percussion (Helen Altoft) who delivered the Queen “sound” – how marvellous to have a guitarist named May in the band too! All too often a band’s volume can overpower the voices especially as in this case when the band is between the stage and audience, but levels were delightfully placed to support but not drown out the singing… though during the big instrumentals, the lead guitar and drums could have been louder to just give that OOOMPH we have all come to love from Brian May and Roger Taylor 😊… But then again that may (ba doom tish!) just be me who likes his music LOUD!!!
No musical theatre show is ever complete without a wonderful ensemble and as ever with TMT shows, these ensembles were a highlight with tight choreography and slick background singing and stage presence. Its not realistic to mention the nigh on thirty ensemble members all individually, and its possibly unfair to just single one of them out, but I do have to say Yvonne Paulley shone throughout with her happy, smiling face, clearly enjoying herself to the maximum (and that is no slight on all the others either of course!). Regarding the choreography, Dani Fuke has clearly worked tirelessly with the entire cast, and especially the ensemble, to create such seamless excellence – bravo BRAVO!
Andrew Curtis plays the role of “Buddy” which for story purposes acts as a sort Greek chorus, providing the context and background to various key plot information. “Buddy” because his character is named after Buddy Holly though Andrew skilfully provides at times a Ben Elton lookalike as well as Buddy Holly during the show to provide an homage to the scriptwriter 😊
Ryan Chown as Brit (Britney Spears) and the ever excellent Daisy Woodruffe as Oz (Ozzie Osbourne) combine with Buddy to set the scene and bring the early plot along as a loving couple intent on fulfilling their innate desires to rebel against Globalsoft, and Chris Howlett provides one half of the oppressive Globalsoft dictatorship as Khashoggi, the head of secret police with distinct Gestapo overtones.
The other half of the evil empire, the supreme leader of iPlanet, Killer Queen, is superbly played by Keeley Guyan in her TMT debut. Her strong vocals and stage presence shine through and she totally makes her solos her own.
That just leaves us with Carisma Dolphin as Scaramouche and Noah Heard as Galileo; both are excellent in their characterisation and delivery, Carisma especially as her portrayal of the uber sassy, girl power confidence imbued heroine of this piece. Their on-stage chemistry as a couple grows throughout the show in line with their characters’ relationship, quite wonderfully done, and their duets were simply perfect. Now – it’s a tough call for anyone to take on songs by Freddie Mercury, and not even George Michael could fill those huge boots, but both Noah and Carisma had clearly worked hard to emulate some of Mercury’s intonations and delivery. Chapeau!
I began with a comment about jukebox musicals being just great songs and a weak storyline, but it is only fair to add that amongst this daft storyline, there are some real connections to historical and contemporary issues… dictatorships, rebellions, oppression, the struggles of minorities, bread-and-circuses state control and so on; maybe unsurprising given Ben Elton’s past as an irony heavy stand-up comic and satirical author. So, while this is a light hearted show nonetheless it does deal with some genuinely terrible concepts beneath its surface and it is worth a moment of reflection.
“We Will Rock You” is performed by Trowbridge Musical Theatre at St. Augustine’s Catholic College, Trowbridge from May 27th until 30th, at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.
Tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/trowbridge-musical-theatre
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