Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...When it comes to the Queen musical “We Will Rock You,” there are two very distinct things going on.
In San Jose Stage’s production of the 2002 musical, the iconic tunes that launched the legend of one of rock music’s greatest voices, Freddie Mercury, are presented with effective reverence. Yet Ben Elton’s story and script are so universally bad you have to wonder if artificial intelligence on a bad day had a hand in crafting this dreck.
Director Will Detlefsen and choreographer Jenni Hong do what they can with the material they are given, which isn’t much.
Long into the future, Earth has been conquered and renamed iPlanet, now ruled by Killer Queen (Nick Tabora) and Khashoggi (Heather Mae Steffen). In this bland, milquetoast world, freedom to express oneself through music is a big no-no. But wait! There may be a few folks who can salvage this soulless scourge of scarcity.
In walk a couple of potential heroes — the properly sunglassed Galileo Figaro (Sean Okuniewicz) and rebel Scaramouche (Erin Rose Solorio), a duo who leads a group of Bohemians armed with knowledge of music’s glorious past, including many of rock’s greatest pillars, which obviously includes Britney Spears.
A storyline this facile will certainly bring forth a happy ending, and while I have no desire to spoil anything, let’s just say everything is fine.
There are plenty of skill levels at play throughout the cast, but Tabora’s outstanding turn stands out with his level of sharp shredding and terrific vocal tone. He is consistently funny as the evil, ruthless killer, while also looking great in Pamela Rodriguez-Montero’s varied and dystopian costume design.
The heroes who save us from these awful, terrible music haters do so with force. Okuniewicz and his too-cool-for-school vibe plays well, as he is able to riff inside Galileo’s delightful wit. His register has the ability to do justice to Mercury’s legendary vocals, which were rangy yet specific. Solorio has her own strengths as a performer, with some really sweet interpretations of Queen’s bigger hits (“Somebody to Love” is especially effective).
The San Jose Stage production also has the fortune of working with a terrific five-piece band, with Benjamin Belew’s music direction more effective in the rock versions than the power ballads. All of the great Queen numbers are represented here (even Mercury’s 1985 Live Aid chant “eeeeoooo” makes an appearance), with others making fine contributions. Amanda Le Nguyen and Z Hansen lead a particularly effective version of “I Want it All,” featuring some of the show’s best ensemble work.
Other members of the cast contribute some sharp edges and moments that are legitimately funny. Joel Roster is graced with some of the best one-liners as the sage old rocker Pop, a recent Stage find who is a strong character actor. Since the technology is so old, Pop lets the young whippersnappers know about the magic of the “televaggio” while waxing poetic about some of music’s great legends, including The Beatles and their fabulous drummer Bingo, in addition to Tupelo, Mississippi’s, favorite son, Pelvis.
The script does its worst when it tries to do too much and digs too deep; i.e., when characters toss out slop such as: “Rock ‘n’ roll is anything you want it to be.”
Whoa.
Still, the show does exactly what it should — give Queen lovers a bunch of good renditions of the band’s extensive catalogue, affording plenty of opportunities to sing along and dance in the seats, and just have a good time.
Because, as I’ve just learned, rock ‘n’ roll is anything you want it to be. Or something like that.
David John Chávez is a former chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association, a 2020 O’Neill National Critics Institute fellow, and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2022-’23). @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘WE WILL ROCK YOU’
By Ben Elton, based on the music and lyrics of Queen, presented by San Jose Stage Company
Through: June 28
Where: San Jose Stage, 490 S. 1st St., San Jose
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes with an intermission
Tickets: $38-$84; thestage.org