| Written by Benjamin Tay,
on Tuesday, 8 April 2008
|
Published in : Culture, Music |
 Global phenomenon We Will Rock You! has arrived in Singapore.
In case you didn’t know, it isn’t any coincidence that this rock-theatre
musical sounds like a legendary single from English rock band Queen. This
sell-out musical was written by prominent comedian and author Ben Elton, in
collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor.
It’s no joke; WWRY! has played to over 6 million
people worldwide in the last five years, and it’s set to take Singapore
by storm. Fact has it that tickets have been literally “flying off the shelves”
since they started going on sale. It’s a small wonder why WWRY has been the
talk of the town lately.
Get a load of this – in response
to meeting the huge demand alone, the producers have extended the season by 16
more shows to Apr 27 but be warned – no further extensions are possible. Surely
this gives you a measure of how popular this musical is. Right about now I
could bore you here with an endless list of facts and figures about how WWRY! has been making waves
worldwide, but, nahh. Simply put –
while most producers worry about the lack of an audience, these guys worry
about meeting the overwhelming demand instead. Seems like word-of-mouth
recommendations are indeed the most powerful advertising tool (they’re calling
it an “international grapevine”).
 Needless to say, the Youth.SG
team was invited down to catch a preview of WWRY last week.
For one, the press conference took place in a rather unusual location – the Esplanade
Theatre itself! Looks a bit like the Kodak Theatre in America
(where the American Idol finals take place), but smaller of course.
So there we were, some 20-odd of
us seated sparsely in a one-thousand capacity venue. Shortly after the usual
jibber jabber from the producers, the lights dimmed – the faint silhouette of
the curtains drew apart – and out came New
Zealand pop princess Annie Crummer and some
other dude with bleached hair. They looked villainous, so I assumed they play the
bad guys. Performing ‘A Kind of Magic’, the duo (and their dozen over back-up
dancers/singers) scored some major window-shattering vocal points.
I must say the stage sets are
really elaborate. The elevated platform looked fantastic, the LCD-backdrop,
together with the dry-ice-smokey effect; it was truly a sight to behold. I
won’t go into the singing bits, because we all know these guys can frickin’
sing like Whitney Houston or Josh Groban.
What better way to round up the
short-preview with ‘We Will Rock You’, featuring cranky dances from the
ensemble cast and guitars blaring at what – 150 decibels? It made your average
rock concert sound like a lullaby. Put everything together, and you’ve got yourself
a wondrous spectacle of sights and sounds.
Anyway, what is WWRY about?
We are not giving away any plot details here, but just know that you’ll be
hearing a lot of Queen that night. 26 of their legendary hits have been
recreated by the eight-piece live band that travels with the ensemble cast,
such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘Crazy Little Thing
Called Love’ and of course, ‘We Will Rock You’.
PHOTOS: ADELINE YEO
Tickets are on sale via Sistic and going like hotcakes now! Don’t say
we didn’t warn you – book early!
(We hear student tickets are available at $50 for Saturday/Sunday matinees and selected evening performances! $50!! That's a real steal.)
|
(0 vote)
