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We Will Rock You Extends Five Months Before US

Despite a generally poor critical reception, producers of the Queen musical We Will Rock You have announced a five-month extension to its booking period, ahead of a planned Broadway production in 2003. The £7.5 million musical opened at the West End's Dominion Theatre on 14 May 2002 and had been booking up 17 August 2002; it is now taking bookings until the end of January 2003.

According to We Will Rock You's press department, in the five weeks since opening, the show has been seen by over 100,000 people and has grossed more than £4 million at the box office. An official cast recording will be released in September. In addition to the US production, the show is also scheduled to open in several other countries in 2003.

Set in the future, We Will Rock You tells the story of a world in which globalisation has meant the death of real music in favour of computer-produced cyber stars, a status quo which the rebel Bohemians, harking back to the Golden Age of rock (embodied by Queen), are trying to overthrow so that they can write and perform their own music.

We Will Rock You stars Tony Vincent and Hannah Jane Fox, as rebel lovers Galileo and Scaramouche, with Sharon D Clarke as the evil Killer Queen, Alexander Hanson as her lackey Kashoggi and Nigel Planer as a hippy librarian. The production is directed by Christopher Renshaw and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, with costumes by Tim Goodchild, sound by Bobby Aitken and music supervision by Mike Dixon.

The musical's star attraction, particularly for the hordes of Queen fans, is the score packing in more than 30 of the band's greatest hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Under Pressure", "Radio Gaga" and, of course, "We Will Rock You".

- by Terri Paddock

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