IDA’s Rachel Tucker Joins Queen We Will Rock You

Rachel Tucker (pictured) has become the latest failed Nancy to be cast in a West End role since the conclusion of the BBC’s I’d Do Anything reality TV competition in May. From 22 September, Tucker will star as Meat in Queen musical We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre.

One of the Irish ‘Nancys’, Tucker made it as far as the semi-finals on I’d Do Anything, competing to win a starring role in Cameron Mackintosh’s upcoming revival of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! at the West End’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a prize which eventually went to Jodie Prenger (See News, 2 Jun 2008). Tucker was the ninth of the final dozen voted off by the public.

Prior to I’d Do Anything, Tucker was already a professional performer, with credits including Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the Night in the West End, and Rent, The Wizard of Oz and The Full Monty elsewhere.

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. An unintentional hero ends up saving the kids of Planet Mall from the tyrannical Killer Queen and discovers the place of living rock.

We Will Rock You has a book by Ben Elton and features 32 of Queen’s greatest hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “Under Pressure”, “Radio Gaga” and, of course, “We Will Rock You”. It’s directed by Elton, choreographed by Arlene Phillips and designed by Mark Fisher and Willie Williams.

Tucker takes over the role of Meat from Lucy Sinclair. The current cast also features Ricardo Afonso (as Galileo), Sabrina Aloueche (Scaramouche), Mazz Murray (Killer Queen) and Alex Bourne (Kashoggi). We Will Rock You is currently booking at the Dominion Theatre until 3 October 2009, more than seven years after it opened to largely damning reviews on 14 May 2002 (previews from 26 April).

– by Terri Paddock