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Preview by Jack Foley |
HOLLYWOOD heavyweight Robert De Niro was in town this week (Tuesday, March
26, 2002) to promote a new £7.5 million Queen musical, We Will Rock
You, at the Dominion theatre.
The star of acclaimed classics such as The Godfather, Heat and The Deer Hunter
is to bring the rock musical to London as part of his Tribeca Theatrical Productions
company and was joined on stage by former Queen members Brian May and Roger
Taylor, as well as comedian Ben Elton.
The show is also being backed by Queen Theatrical Productions and Phil McIntyre
Promotions Ltd, and represents their first theatre venture.
De Niro, who flew in from New York especially for the press conference and
to see a run through of the musical in rehearsal, said he was 'very interested'
in doing the musical because he thought it was 'a great idea'.
" We’ve gone through a lot of stages with it, but now we’ve
finally got this far it’s going to be terrific,” he promised. And
although this is his company's first venture into musical theatre territory,
he looked forward to it as 'a real adventure'; and something 'we will learn
a lot of things from'.
Former Queen guitarist Brian May believes the show will be a fitting tribute
to late lead singer Freddie Mercury, who 'would have loved it'. May described
Mercury as 'a very theatrical character' who would have been very pleased
with what we are doing.
However, the play itself is not based on the musical story of Queen, even
though it will feature the band's music. May and Taylor confessed that the
time wasn't right to focus on their lives just yet, claiming 'it would be
too embarrassing'.
Ben Elton, who wrote the book for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Beautiful
Game, described Queen’s music as 'uniquely theatrical and grandiose',
adding that the musical is 'as big as their music itself – it’s
like the Matrix meets Arthurian legend meets Terminator 2', he quipped.
One of the undoubted highlights will be seeing Bohemian Rhapsody performed
live by a chorus on stage.
It is hoped that the success of the London venture will pave the way for a world tour for the show, with May revealing that New York's Broadway could be the next stop.
We Will Rock You takes place in a futuristic world where rock music is banned
and begins its previews on April 22, before opening on May 14.
Keep clicking these pages for future updates on the show.
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elite take on This Is Our Youth
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Ralph Fiennes to take to the stage in December
Madonna Up For Grabs in the evenings
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