I wasn't expecting to be surprised by "We Will Rock You", which has just opened at the Fox. Based on the songs of Queen, the British rock band, it's an imaginative change from the and-then-we-recorded genre. Even for those only vaguely familiar with the music beyond "We Are the Champions", it's fun. It's not Shakespeare or Sondheim, but it's fun.
Set in the far future, it's full of references to and jokes about the past. It's an Orwellian future where rock is dead, killed, they explain, by "American Idol". The planet is ruled by Grace Jones and Max Headroom – excuse me, I mean Killer Queen and Khashoggi, played by Jacqueline B. Arnold and P.J. Griffith. They've discovered that there's an underground of rock worshippers who've never actually heard rock but believe it must have been Truth, Love, etc., thereby disrupting good order.
Enter our hero, Galileo.. Amazingly unmedicated, he spouts lyrics to old songs, explaning that he "hears things". Brian Rubin Crum in the role carries off amazing stuff without breaking up at the glorious ridiculousness of it, but it's Ruby Lewis, playing the young woman Galileo names Scaramouche, who grabs the audience. It's her voice that wins us – the character is shallowly written even for a show like this. They find the underground worshippers of rock; dissent, of course, ensues.
It's a shame that the sound system at the Fox once again falls short. Not, of course, in volume; the seats were shaking. (Little-known fact: Rock and roll wasn't always this loud. Just ask Chuck Berry.) But lyrics are lost in the band's very competent work much of the time, and blurring elsewhere annoys. Excellent lighting, despite overdependence on strobes, from lighting designer Willie Williams.
But the fun resides as much in the script as in the music, with those throwaway lines explaining it's all rock and roll to me, so to speak. Not many twenty-somethings will find as much to laugh about as those of us who began listening to music back in the age of vinyl or even 8-tracks, but that's okay. Their time is coming, and they're plenty old enough to laugh at the twerking reference.
And speaking of the young, it was a middle-aged couple in front of me, not young ones, that were using Google glasses and snogging through the first act. Young at heart, I suppose, but while smooching is great, I'm thinking the Ggs are as illegal as video cams in that setting.
We Will Rock You
through March 30
Fox Theatre