A Night at the Theatre

Last night we went to "We Will Rock You" - the musical by Queen and Ben Elton.
We went with the full knowledge that this would be a big flashy production with a bantam-weight story. No disappointments there. The script was just right for the cheesy, unrealistic, never mind the fine details, futuristic setting i.e. 300 years into the future when live music and rebellious thoughts are forbidden. The jokes that targeted today's manufactured bands and plastic music production were well aimed. There was good variety in the humour. Elton had a go at politics, sex, education, sex, music industry, rock legends, sex etc.
The selection of Queen songs included quite a number that I didn't recognise. Given the theme of the story, I expected to hear more of the early Queen songs when they were passionate about the no synths, no sequencing, "keepin it real" style. I guess the constraints of matching lyrics to story forced some compromises.
The lighting and effects were superb. It used the full dynamic range of my retinas. Videos on the huge ultra-bright display added to the futuristic feel (except for the use of Space Invaders to back Another One Bites the Dust - just a little too retro to be believable).
The overall volume levels were more than adequate for a stage musical, but not high enough to give the feel of a Queen concert. Consequently the big anthem numbers felt a little tame. It seems a shame that they had to sanitise the noise levels to pander to an all-ages audience, but at the same time try to preach a message about music being free and wild.
The acting was a little wooden at first. It's hard to level this as a criticism, since the surreal radio-gaga plastic world makes it very difficult to give a credible acting performance. After interval the show got better. Maybe it was just me adjusting to the style. It seemed that the actors started to live their parts rather than just playing them.
Overall it was a great night's entertainment but it lacked the kind of magic that leaves you buzzing all the way home and itching to get all your friends to go and see it.