The story doesn’t make sense, but who cares? It’s Queen.
What: We Will Rock You
Where: CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St.
When: Now, until Sun., Jan. 18
Highlight: Incredible pop-rock vocals
Rating: NNNN (out of 5)
Why you should go: To rock out to Queen’s iconic hits
The lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody are absolute nonsense. “Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango? Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me”? What does that even mean?!? Queen’s biggest hit doesn’t make a lick of sense, but that’s not the point. Queen was a rock ’n’ roll band, and rock ’n’ roll is about freedom. It’s about rebellion, especially rebellion against the establishment, the system, the man, and, maybe, even the obligation to make sense.
Ben Elton’s musical We Will Rock You, currently running in a co-production between Mirvish and the Quebecois production company Gestev, adopts the freedom-loving nonsense of Queen’s greatest rock song. Like many other jukebox musicals, We Will Rock You wedges songs into a story with some semblance of dramatic rationale. Sadly, if the story is incoherent to begin with, the inclusion of songs doesn’t help the story make sense. But, just like Bohemian Rhapsody, maybe that’s not the point. We Will Rock You is about the fun and freedom of rock ’n’ roll in a celebration of the music of Queen.
Set in a distant future dystopia, the ridiculous plot follows Galileo (Callum Lurie), a student who has had the entire archive of popular music downloaded into his mind by Ozzy (Peter Deiwick), the leader of a rag-tag band of music-loving revolutionaries who call themselves the Bohemians. Ozzy, in an act of rebellion against the techo-tyranny of the corporation Globalsoft — led by the A.I. dictator, the Killer Queen (Maggie LaCasse) — has hacked into Globalsoft’s computer system to revive rock ’n’ roll, suppressed by the regime, to free the citizens of the world and their imaginations from the prison of artificial consumerism. What follows is a flimsy tale of Globalsoft’s attempt to snuff out this rebellion and the Bohemians’ passion to liberate the world through rock ’n’ roll. Even though the show lacks multidimensional characters and the sci-fi world of the musical lacks consistency and no concern for narrative logic, the silly story is not (necessarily) an obstacle to enjoyment.
And, yes, this production is a lot of fun. First and foremost, the music rocks. Freddie Mercury had a knack for the theatrical, so Queen hits like Somebody to Love, Don’t Stop Me Now and The Show Must Go On (which is featured in Moulin Rouge but sadly cut from the stage adaptation of the film) are perfectly suited to the stage.
These songs are brought to life by an incredibly talented cast. Lurie, in the leading role, doesn’t attempt to impersonate Mercury while still sounding flawless, singing melodies that require a notoriously high range in a pure, bright, pop-rock tenor. Galileo’s comrade, Scaramouche (Paige Foskett), joins Lurie in singing Queen’s oeuvre with a perfect combination of a Broadway belt and pop-rock soprano without ever revealing that the material is actually challenging to sing. If you go just to hear Queen’s famous tunes sung well, you’ll be pleased to hear the hits you know and love sung beautifully.
The sets (Jean-Marc Saumier) and lighting and video design (David Lee, Yohan Gingras and Christian Noel of Studio XF-40) are both spectacular and make dramaturgical sense. The projections and the futuristic digital aesthetic they inevitably evoke succeed in distinguishing the clinical and sterile world of the technocratic corporation from the world of the Bohemians, whose secret lair is made from real, concrete materials. In contrast to many other musicals that rely on digital projections to save money while trying (and often failing) to create spectacular visuals, We Will Rock You does not indulge in this cost-cutting temptation, instead building a home for Bohemians that is as tangible as the rock ’n’ roll they’re so passionate about.
Even though the story is superficial — which might prompt the question “Why not just produce a Queen tribute concert instead and ditch all the other nonsense?” — We Will Rock You capitalizes on the spectacle of musical theatre proper in its use of dance and design. The only thing better than experiencing Queen’s iconic songs performed live by gifted singers is to see them being staged with thrilling choreography (expertly handled by Megan Brydon and Yannick Moisan) on visually striking sets and wearing costumes (designed by Vanessa Borris) that span a range of styles from Janet Jackson’s iconic Rhythm Nation to the bohemians of Rent, who are a sister tribe of the bohemians in this show. These elements all come together beautifully in a particularly fun musical sequence involving three people doing choreography on a motorbike zooming across the Nevada desert.
Between the sets, the projections, the costumes, the singing, and the music, this production is a lot of fun. Sure, the story is inane, but it’s rock ’n’ roll and rock ’n’ roll refuses to be confined by any rules or expectations. Rock ’n’ roll might be nonsense, but, when it is good — and Queen was great — rock ’n’ roll does make its own kind of sense. Rock ’n’ roll creates a sense, a feeling, of freedom.
Rock ’n’ roll is a vibe. A vibe that is felt when music, fashion, and a political philosophy of freedom coalesce to be more than the sum of its parts. And the audience on opening night was feeling that vibe. With complimentary glow sticks swaying in the air in time with the thumping pop-rock beat, the audience could palpably sense that feeling of freedom and fun that Queen, rock n’ roll and We Will Rock You are all about.
