We Will Rock You
Loved the show, it's a feel-good piece of theatre from beginning to end. The cast is having fun and they project it --
the orchestra is excellent and the volume of the music is *very* loud, making the atmosphere reminiscent of a rock
concert. The lighting effects are very strong, lots of flashes directed at the audience, seemingly including them
into the playing space, which works to draw them in.
"We Got It All" was broken off right in the middle, the theatre evacuated - Feli thought it might be some sort of
attack on London; I must confess I hadn't even particularly noticed the date. But it was no such matter and we
were allowed back in after only about 10-15 minutes and the show went on. I must say I admire the total lack of
panic on the side of the theatre audience. They were completely calm and cool. I don't think that would've been
possible in Austria ;D.
Thanks to Jye Frasca, I found Cliff Richard excessively cute and funny today. He was waving his skirts about with
great relish and showing off his behind and thighs (in black tights). The few lines he had were delivered with a
very low, honey-sweet voice *grins*. And when the chair was taken out from under him by Pop after "Days of Our Lives",
he fell over with a flourish. He was hilarious, great fun to watch and very enthusiastic during the dance numbers… it
wasn't particularly hard spotting him, of course, since he's not the tallest ;D. Jye also put one of his legs up
vertically (splits while standing) *ouch*, very impressive, I must say. I did like him better as Cliff Richard
than as Carbucketty (in CATS) I should say, as I think he had more mimics and was overall more interesting in his
portrayal of the role.
I had trouble spotting Emma Woods (another ex-CATS member), which was a shame as I had so looked forward to seeing her.
Tony Vincent (Galileo) is fantastic, so is Scaramouche (Hannah Jane Fox). These two, along with Meat (Kerry Ellis)
and Britney (Nigel Clauzel) are just amazing. When Meat sang "No One But You" it was deathly quiet in the auditorium --
she puts so much emotion into each and every word and to me, it's the highlight of the show, quite frankly.
Pop was understudied by Mig Ayesa, a fairly young guy (which didn't fit the role imo), with an absolutely stunning
voice. His accent (Australian) was very heavy though, which made for some unexpected additional comedy. I adored him
and he had a fresh, new interpretation of the role. But he was too young all the same as far as I'm concerned. The
new Kashaggi (Clive Carter) was brilliant, I did like him better than last year's. The Killer Queen (Sharon D. Clarke)
is great, though I didn't pay that much attention to her, I watched the dance choreography during her songs more
closely, which is fascinating ;D. Those dancers have to be *very* flexible. Saw Jye kneeling as he bent backwards,
with his head ending up touching the boards between his feet.
I did like the rest of the cast, they were very good as a team, though none of them stood out for me in particular.
I still don't like the anti-globalisation theme of the show; I noticed that they've changed some references in the
script to reflect recent (political) developments. I enjoyed that tremendously, as it shows that work is being done
and that the show is actually staying true to the critical approach that it projects, for all that it is very much
tongue-in-cheek.
My favourite line will always be "Britney Spears died to save us." (Right behind Britney's introducing himself as
the 'biggest, baddest rocker' type of guy, very manly and all, and then saying his name was 'Britney Spears'. Just
cracked me up.)
STAGE DOOR:
Feli and I went, but we didn't stop anyone - we didn't see Emma and Jye seemed to be in a hurry. But then we saw
Brian May (!) -- wow. He was having his photo taken and talked to some people, but I would've been too tongue-tied.
I mean, he's a living legend! And I'm a chicken at the stage door as it is ;D. We had a smile and a few words from
Tony as he came out, because he made a point of greeting everyone assembled, like the sweet guy he is.
Questions, comments and suggestions can be directed to me at
ferngully_at@yahoo.com.