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 Ben Elton hosted the Press Review of the show today, and what a performance he gave. Charisma, wonderful humour and energy that Freddy himself would have been proud of.
“We Will Rock You, What is it?
When Queen did me the great honour of asking me, can you think of a story that might give a theatrical contest for our work. I said well the story must be BIG, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL just like Queen.
And the story must have a big sense of humour and be able to laugh at itself, just like Queen.
And above all the story must be of a legend, just like Queen.
And so I imagined a world set in the future where Rock music is dead, crushed by the forces of computer generated pop music. Live music is banned, electric guitars are banned. The kids are no longer allowed to write their own songs.
But legend has it that hundreds of years in the past, A God of rock, with long curly hair set a guitar in stone and he who could draw forth that guitar and play the mighty riffs would free the kids and Rock’n’roll would be reborn.
That’s the story of WWRY, it’s very very silly, but we take it very very seriously.
So world wide Hong Kong has a reputation of knowing how to party and how to Rock’n’roll. We are going to put your city to the test; because we have brought a Rock party to Hong Kong and we want to see you rock!” I have had the pleasure of seeing We Will Rock You in London last year, and the three songs performed for the media captured all of the passion, loudness, and rock and roll perfection that the entire show emulates. The cast did a terrific job. Annie Crummer plays the Villain of the show, the Killer Queen. She sang It’s A Kind Of Magic and was a sensational presence, with vocals and stature that legends are made of. Mig Ayesa plays Galileo, the central character of the show. He is the dreamer in a world of conformity and he was brilliant, and for such a little guy he can certainly belt it out. He sang Who Wants to Live Forever, in a tender duet with his soul mate in the show Scaramouche. Then he, the entire cast and the brilliant rock band finished it off with the thrilling We Will Rock You. The entire sequence of songs and Ben Elton giving the synopsis of each scene we were about to witness was a show in itself.
We then had the pleasure of asking the Rock Legend himself Mr. Roger Taylor and the writer of the thrilling show Ben Elton a few questions before the TV stations got their hands on them. Q & A ROGER TAYLOR Which song is your favourite Queen song and why?
Too many songs, too many favourites. Today’s music is very much based on digital enhancements and effects rather than live instruments. What do you think of digital music?
Songs are still composed by people although computers and digital equipment may be their new tools. A good song is still a good song however the music was made. When you decided to do this project, you weren’t particularly interested in Musical Theatre, what were your biggest fears about the show?
That it would be typical music theatre, and we wanted to inject some rock’n’roll. When I was a kid I used to really not like musicals at all, I loved rock’n’roll very much. I didn’t like the sort of music that my parents liked, The Sound of Music and stuff like that. For me I wanted it to be more of a Rock Concert than anything like musical theatre. What are you listening to on your Ipod?
Rufus Wainwright
BEN ELTON
I have heard a rumour that there is a sequel in progress, is that true? There are 26 hit singles of Queens in WWRY and yet, there are enough hit singles for a sequel. Queen has sold over 250 million albums worldwide, and they are unique in the fact that all four members have individually written number one hits.
Brian May wrote We Will Rock You, Roger Taylor wrote It’s A Kind of Magic, John Deacon wrote Another One Bites the Dust, Freddy Mercury wrote Bohemian Rhapsody, incredible four genius artists. What do you think Freddy Mercury would have thought of the show? Backstage pinned up at the Dominion Theatre is a letter that Freddy’s mother wrote to us after the first show in London six years ago. Freddy’s mother said We Will Rock You is set in the future, Freddy would have loved that, he always looked to the future.
We Will Rock You is a comedy, Freddy always loved to laugh and he would have wanted it to be a comedy.
And then she Para-quoted Shakespeare, “If music is the food of love”…. Rock ON!! You have stated in your press release “You’ll see everything London sees but with a special Hong Kong flavour”. What Hong Kong flavour will we see? Rock’n’roll is like this memory and the kids in the show are like archeologists trying to discover what it was and what it meant. Because the comedy is set in the future they don’t understand it really and they don’t know the difference between say the Beatles and the Smurfs. So we put some jokes about Hong Kong pop into the show and also wherever we go we pay tribute to the local Rock industry. Sometimes as we know some Rock Heroes die young, like Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Freddy Mercury and we sing a song in the show which pays tribute to those who died young. The main reason that the Hong Kong show is unique is because everything is Live and so the audience is part of the show. And wherever we go it’s the audience that makes the show unique. So it’s up to you to make this the best WWRY. Book online at www.hkticketing.com or call the Ticket Purchase Hotline on 31 288 288.
We Will Rock You Hong Kong will be a Musical sensation not to be missed.
Article by Megan N. |
