"Bohemian Rhapsody" and the rest of Queen's canon take center stage in Las Vegas

By Gary Dretzka
Special to The Seattle Times

JOAN MARCUS The "We Will Rock You" story line is over-the-top, even by Vegas standards, but features 20 classic Queen songs performed by a troupe of talented singers and dancers.

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LAS VEGAS — When Tribeca Theatrical Productions co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal began to consider American venues for their smash London hit, "We Will Rock You," one city stood out from the rest — and it was three time zones removed from New York's Great White Way.

"Las Vegas is a wonderful place to launch a show like this," Rosenthal said, before the U.S. premiere here at the Paris Las Vegas earlier this month. "Given the changing economics on Broadway, we felt that audiences here were more likely to embrace something more edgy and risqué. Las Vegas is known for taking chances, and the audiences are very generous."

Far more generous, certainly, than the London critics who took great pleasure in savaging the loud and energetic rock-musical, which was inspired by the songs of Queen. More generous, too, than mainstream American critics whose venomous prose couldn't keep fans from flocking to Celine Dion's long-running "A New Day" at Caesars Palace; "Mamma Mia" at Mandalay Bay; Cirque's sexy "Zumanity" at New York-New York; Wayne Newton at the Stardust; and most famously, Siegfried & Roy at the Mirage.

	JOAN MARCUS "We Will Rock You" is a new Las Vegas show showcasing the songs of rock band Queen.

Fact is, most of the folks who are attracted to these sorts of only-in-Vegas entertainments — and such critically approved anomalies as "O," "Mystère" and Blue Man Group — couldn't care less what the pundits have to say. And only the least honorable of critics would shape their opinions to fit the tastes of the Great Unwashed, including those in London, Spain and Australia who have greeted the production with two years' worth of standing ovations and sold-out theaters.

Anyone in the opening-night audience who had just awakened from a 20-year nap would have thought that nothing had changed since the '80s. Mullet-haired fanboys punched the air with their fists, corseted women sang along audibly to their favorite songs, and the off-stage darkness was punctuated by hundreds of glow sticks. The mandatory standing ovation was long and passionately rendered.

This comes as welcome news to Paris Las Vegas executives, who've invested tens of millions of dollars in the show and would dearly love to elevate the status of their "intimate" 1,450-seat Le Théâtre des Arts from "white elephant" to "profit center."

	JOAN MARCUS Oz (Carly Thomas, left), Brit (Ty Taylor), Galileo (Tony Vincent) and Scaramouche (Aspen Miller) in "We Will Rock You."

"We Will Rock You" is just the kind of over-the-top entertainment that latter-day Las Vegas does better than anyone else and gives the city a competitive edge over other gambling destinations. It's a multigenerational show that relies less on what critics think than the buzz carried back home by the same appreciative customers who made the virtually unknown impressionist Danny Gans a multimillionaire.

Showcase for songs

It's much easier, though, to describe what "We Will Rock You" isn't — a 90-minute homage to Freddie Mercury, a tribute with showgirls and showboys — than what it actually is. But you could say the same thing about most Cirque du Soleil productions, which don't need to be understood intellectually to be enjoyed.

Queen for a day To hear samples, visit www.queenmusic.com. For tickets: www.caesars.com/Paris/LasVegas/

Ben Elton, probably best known here as author of the various "Blackadder" series and several popular BBC sitcoms, wrote the book to the musical. He describes "We Will Rock You" as "The Matrix" meets "The Sword in the Stone," but emphasizes that its many pop-culture references have been Americanized for those whose ears may not be attuned to Brit humor.

The characters in the U.S. version exist on the fringes of a fully globalized world — re-named Planet Mall — where musical instruments are banned and only the computer-generated music of androgynous boy and girl bands is allowed. All documentation of the work by the great rock gods of the 20th century has been deleted from the collective memory cache by the Killer Queen.

Still, an unkempt band of outlaw Bohemians exists — like so many extras from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" — in the catacombs of a ruined Las Vegas. Under the optimistic tutelage of a throwback hippie muse, these outcasts anticipate the long-prophesized arrival of a leather-clad rebel, Galileo Figaro (Iggy Pop look-alike Tony Vincent), who will unlock the secrets buried in their genetic codes.

The critics were expecting "The Iceman Cometh"?

While clearly hokey even by Vegas standards, the story line merely exists to serve the 20 classic Queen songs brought to exuberant life by a troupe of four-dozen extremely talented singers and dancers. Like a growing number of Strip extravaganzas, the cast and creative team includes many veterans of Broadway, Hollywood and West End productions, and their enthusiasm is infectious.

Adding to the dynamism of the music are frequent pyrotechnic displays, inventive sets and props, and several giant video screens. Every corner of the unusually high and wide Théâtre proscenium — which has stymied previous companies — is fully utilized by the large and attractive cast.

The rousing crowd-pleasers "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" have become so synonymous with title matches in major sporting events, they almost seemed out of place within the context of this futuristic quest fantasy. One didn't have to buy into the book's conceit to enjoy the songs in their new setting, though. Their elasticity allows them to stretch effortlessly from soccer stadiums and basketball arenas, to concert halls and musical theater.

Star-filled premiere

One bit of Queen mythology that often goes unsung is the fact that all four of its musicians penned chart-topping songs. When Mercury died of AIDS-related causes in 1991 at 45, he may have been the most visible and charismatic member, but fans never considered the group to be a one-man show.

The troupe participated in the climactic "Bohemian Rhapsody," turning Mercury's lush and intricate rock-tragedy (poverty, murder, despair, self-loathing) into a celebration. Because of its complexity and need for full choral support, Queen felt it couldn't do the operetta justice in concert, so it let the video stand on its own. There were more than enough people on stage during the show's climax to bring "Bohemian Rhapsody" to life. Like Wayne and Garth before them, the Paris audience ate it up.

After the show, Queensters Brian May and Roger Taylor dipped their hands into a block of wet concrete for the Hollywood Rockwalk, and later entertained post-show partygoers with a 50-minute jam session, which included a trim Meat Loaf (and, say, wouldn't "Bat Out of Hell" make a perfect Vegas show?).

The concert and reception also attracted such Queen contemporaries as Steve Vai, Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Steve Lukather and Simon Phillips (Toto) and Eric Singer (KISS). Among the nonclassic rockers in the crowd were De Niro, Monty Python's Eric Idle, "Absolutely Fabulous" star Jennifer Saunders and Robin Leach, who, as is his wont these days, parroted Hugh Hefner by arriving with a pair of bosomy blondes on each arm.

What, you were expecting Stephen Sondheim?

Gary Dretzka: gdretzka@aol.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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