Last night Mum, Dad, Heather and myself went to see an amateur production of We Will Rock You, the musical based on the music of Queen, written by Ben Elton, Brian May and Roger Taylor.

It’s running for just 4 performances over 2 days at the Theatre Royal, Wakefield. We were alerted to the show because a friend of mine, Jim Lunt, is acting as musical director for the show. An email went round, and we decided to go and support him. It’s also a good chance to see WWRY, as I don’t think we’ll ever get to the London show.

So what of the show? Well, I don’t think it was what any of us expected to be honest. Mum and Dad had no real idea of what to expect and Heather thought it was more of a biographical thing. I’d read up on the net, so kinda knew what to expect. Saying that, the story was weaker than I thought it would be. (Then again, how do you make a storyline out of a bunch of non-related songs?)

Acting/performance wise it was what you would expect. Certain performers were weaker than others - while some were simply amazing! Unfortunately, a couple of dodgy radio mics that kept cutting out made it difficult to hear a couple of the actresses at quiet/spoken moments, which probably didn’t help with understanding the storyline.
Musically… well, it’s Queen isn’t it? How can you fail to sing along to We Are The Champions, We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody and the rest? The sound was fab, the singers were great (some were amazing).

You could tell all the cast were really enjoying themselves and “in the moment” - which is always good. There’s nothing worse than bored actors!

Finally, I want to give a shout of thanks to the front of house staff at Theatre Royal. Turning up in a wheelchair knowing I’d booked upstairs seats I wondered how they would react, but they really were very helpful and went out of their way to make sure I had to climb as few stairs as possible. Thanks.

All in all, a great night out - something different. Entertaining and most definitely “out of this world”. It certainly hasn’t harmed my interest in theatre productions.

Find out more about We Will Rock You at QueenOnline.com.