We Will Rock You

Some really wonderful friends, Claudia & I went to see the “We Will Rock You” musical at the Esplanade on Thursday.

Prior to watching it, I have gotten a “you must surely watch it” review to a “its ok lah” review. The latter comment came from someone of much closer to my age. So I did not go to the musical with high expectation.

I have been a Queen fan for many years already. In my opinion, Freddie Mercury’s voice is one of its kind! It would be no exaggeration that he had a really really great voice. I don’t subscript to his lifestyle but I certainly enjoy his (Queen’s) music.

The opening number was Radio Ga Ga done in a chick-flip manner. I was thinking to myself that this is going to be a long evening.

But everything from that point on simply went up and up. There were parts that were really witty. You need to have a certain amount of knowledge of older songs in general in order to understand the clever play of words and pun.

For the next 170 minutes (including the 20 min intermission), I was bowed over with the music. It bought me to my growing up world. It bought me back to my old LP (old black records) and turntable days. I remember rocking to the “We Will Rock You” “Hammer To Fall” “Another One Bites The Dust” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” "A Kind Of Magic" "Bicycle" (only two lines!) etc etc.

As the show came to an end, there was just this sense of dissatisfaction as “Bohemian Rhapsody” wasn’t sung. Queen music without Bohemian Rhapsody is like Fried Kway Teow without Cockles! It is unthinkable and almost blasphemous.

But God was faithful, the musical ended on a very very high note when they sang Bohemian Rhapsody. It was great but not nearly as great as how Freddie did it with Brain May on Electric Guitar. Anyhow, my thirst for Queen music was largely satisfied.

If you love Queen, you have to watch the musical. It’s therapeutic.

If you don’t love Queen, what’s wrong with you?!?