We Will Rock You Review – Newcastle Theatre Royal
A guest Review by Mandy Charlton (Check out her Tik Tok)
Spoiler alert, if you’re expecting a critical analysis of WWRY you may be disappointed!!
This was my third time seeing Ben Elton and Queen’s runaway success musical We Will Rock You and I could go again today for the fourth time. We Will Rock You is probably the best jukebox musical ever.
The clever thing about We Will Rock You is that it’s constantly updating the script to include references to even more contemporary music so along with characters Meatloaf, Cliff Richard, Galileo and Scaramouche you’ll also find references to Taylor Swift, Beyonce and more.
The wit of this musical is sure to leave you belly laughing, it’s so quick-witted and it’s also not afraid of laughing at itself or indeed breaking the fourth wall.
Michael McKell as Cliff was simply brilliant, I’d seen him in Doctors, Emmerdale and even Vera so I was taken away by his singing talents in the role and his comedy acting was completely en pointe.
Damien Walsh shone as Galileo and Elena Skye was quite brilliant in the role of Scaramouche (or scary bush if you saw the musical) but for me, the standout performance of the night was Jennifer O’Leary as Killer Queen, my favourite Killer Queen from all 3 times I’ve seen WWRY including the original cast at the Dominion Theatre in London. That woman can sing, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have such talent, she’s got the lungs!!
We Will Rock You is about 2 and a half hours of absolute joy and every time I cry at the end when the whole theatre sings Bohemian Rhapsody. I noticed that the ending has changed slightly and they’ve also added a couple of covid jokes, I guess that’s what you have to do if you want to move with the times. The new ending was so perfect that I can only vaguely remember the old one and I for one cannot wait until it comes back to Newcastle again so I can watch it a fourth time.
No matter how many times you see this musical you will always find something new in there, a reference, a song, it will fill your soul with joy because it is the perfect rhapsody and yes, they most definitely will rock you!!
It’s a 10/10 for me!
We Will Rock You plays at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Mon 22 – Sat 27 Aug 2022. Tickets are priced from £29.50 and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 0191 232 7010.