We Will Rock You - Coliseum

I think this reviews this time around are worse than 21 years ago!

"Bohemian Crapsody" - inews
"We Will Rob You" - Standard
Both 1 star

Don't get me wrong, it's rubbish, but I still had a lot of fun.

Not everything needs to be Sondheim. Sometimes you need something you can let your hair down to with people singing their faces off at you and that's what this is.

Rubbish, but fun rubbish.

So bad, it's good.
The vocals are guaranteed to blow your mind. The plot is as shaky as the set and graphics and the sound was good but not at Bat quality. Jenny O'Leary as Killer Queen was sensational, Lee Mead surprisingly good and convincing as Khashoggi. I found Ben Elton quite amusing despite his dodgy acting, but the evening belongs to Elena Skye and Ian McIntosh.

Audience loved it - it's clunky and the set could have done with a refresh but the music carries it.

The best 2 star night out you'll enjoy this year.

Oh very intriguing that Jenny was on! Was that scheduled or due to illness, do you know? I did think Brenda's voice sounded like it was going the night before.

Went to the Thursday Matinee, was a packed London Coliseum!

The music of Queen is great the story not so and a few out of date jokes! Awesome to hear the music live but as others have said on the forum there seems to be a few sound issues, at times you couldn't hear dialogue and the band drowned out some of the singing!

We had Jenny O'Leary as Killer Queen (in the programme it says Brenda does not do Thursday Matinees) and she played off well with Lee Mead who played "bad" convincingly as Khashoggi and loved his version of "Seven Seas Of Rhye".

I actually found Ben Elton quite funny but still can't beat Nigel Planer as Pop!

Elena Skye and Ian McIntosh as the leads were well suited opposite each other and loved their version of "Hammer to fall".

My favourites were Christine Allado as Meat and Adrian Hansel as Brit. Their chemistry was fab and their musical numbers were the clearest to hear!

The BIG punch of the Queen music, live band and set really suits the stage as previous Summer musicals at the Coliseum have been lost on the vast stage like My Fair Lady and Hairspray.

Nice to see a Full Size Freddie statue and proper Motorbike appear on stage. But as others have said quite funny to see stage hands pushing things back and forth!

Glad I saw it and only paid £20 I can't believe the prices listed! But would I go again....probably not!

So annoyed that I paid full price for this months ago! 😂

I've been to just about all the Coliseum's summer musicals and have only paid full price once. I've either gone up on the day to Leicester Square, or waited for a late deal on line. WWRY is no different.

I don't know what I was thinking! Must have been feeling uncharacteristically flush in December 2022.

Is there any other show so hated by critics but so loved by the paying public ?  I saw WWRY  on its last tour and it was sold out at a weekday matinee in Ipswich and almost sold out at Wimbledon weekday evening.

I went on Saturday afternoon and had a brilliant time. I went to the Dominion many times, and loved last year's tour, so it was great to see the show back in London.

I was pleased to get a front row seat - but with the size of the orchestra pit, the stage felt a long way off! I liked how they used the pit as a way of getting on and off stage (as the band are above the back of stage). As others have mentioned, some of the costumes are a bit different - I liked Galileo and Scaramouche wearing "Gaga High" logos at the start. I thought the use of the video screens to show much of the set was effective.

As usual, there are some additions/changes to the script which bring it a bit more up to date (everyone being glued to their phones etc.) but I think the whole "legend of WWRY" and "is this reality speech" Scaramouche makes at the end just confuse things even more (but to me it still make a lot more sense than BOOH). But as others have said, it's still a lot of fun.

I LOVED the Freddie statue appearing on stage.

Bohemian Rhapsody was amazing - we were all singing along and a lot of people got their torches out which was great to see. It seemed to finish quite abruptly though - I liked the final messages on the screen, but missed the last curtain call, it's a shame the band don't get to come down at the end.

I'd never been to the Coliseum before, I only discovered where it was relatively recently. I would definitely be going again if I lived closer - but it's a very long and expensive day from the top of Yorkshire!!

So Mum and I went to see this last night. What can I say?! We’re both big Queen fans and we’ve seen Queen with Adam Lambert several times in recent years, which I think made watching the show last night harder given how good that pairing is. Nothing beats seeing the real thing!

We’d seen the reviews and other posts here, so went in with low expectations – which were just about met. If I’m honest I thought it was pretty dire. The story is ridiculous, not helped by long book scenes of nonsense dialogue, cheesy puns and punchlines you could see coming a mile off. Ben Elton was basically himself, and really quite irritating. If we’d had aisle seats, I’d have taken a loo break when he launched into These Are The Days… It’s one of my favourite Queen songs with particularly poignant lyrics that you assume are Freddie reflecting on his life, so Ben’s version was painful to sit through.

Jenny O’Leary was unexpectedly on covering Brenda Edwards, so that was also disappointing, although from the other posts I’ve read, she’s considered as good as Brenda – she did do a good job, but comparatively speaking rather than anything for me to get hugely excited about. I enjoyed Don’t Stop Me Now and Another One Bites The Dust in Act II, with her and Lee Mead as Khashoggi, they were both high points in an otherwise lacklustre show.

Ian Mcintosh and Elena Skye did a good job too, although I found their book scenes overly long. Once they were singing, they both had impressive voices, particularly Ian at the end during We Are The Champions. Another highlight was Christine Allado singing I Want It All (with Adrian Hansel), and also on her own singing No One But You, which I think as I’m less familiar with the original meant I was comparing it less to the record or other performances I’d seen.

Thankfully the audience behaviour was ok, only the occasional bit of chatter, but is it any wonder people don’t know how to behave at the theatre, when at this (and not just in the encore, when its ok at many shows), they’re being actively encouraged to clap, wave their arms and sing along? We had great seats in centre stalls row H, so no quibbles over the view, but it’s galling to have paid £95 a seat months ago only to be bombarded these past couple of weeks with emails offering me massively discounted tickets. I’d have minded less if it’d been a great show, but £20 is about what I felt it was worth! I didn’t even buy a programme which is very unlike me, but I didn’t feel minded to shell out another tenner.

The band were great and Mum especially enjoyed Act II, but I came away feeling a bit disappointed in Brian and Roger, whom I have a lot of respect and admiration for. Did they actually sign off on this? It’s such a shame when the Queen catalogue is so brilliant and iconic, that this is the best they could come up with. Sadly not one to add to the ‘must see again’ list. Just about 2/5 if I’m feeling generous.