We Will Rock You: Director Ben Elton looks back on 20 years of the Queen musical ahead of anniversary tour opening at The Kings Theatre, Southsea

The future of the musical, based on the songs of rock legends Queen, was by no means certain.

However, it has become a firm favourite with fans of the band and the wider public. It went on to run for 12 years in the West End and continues to be performed in major tours across the globe.

Now it is back for a 20th anniversary UK tour which will kick off here at The Kings Theatre in Southsea.

And Ben Elton, the famed comic and author who wrote the musical’s book is back on board as the director.

When asked about those original reviews, Ben clearly remembers it vividly: ‘It was nasty and brutal and completely uncalled for.

‘It was weirdly personal – this strange idea that somehow me and Queen were trying to hoodwink the public when in fact we were delivering this vast entertainment, far more expensive, far more risky than anything else that was on in the West End that year.

‘It was a chillingly, horrible day. We had 100 people being employed, 40 of them onstage – it was a massive production. And we got a standing ovation the previous night.’

It features 24 of the band’s classic songs, from the title track to I Want To Break Free, We Are The Champions, and of course Bohemian Rhapsody, around a plot set in a future where all music has been banned.

It was the public who ensured the show’s survival.

‘The word of mouth on We Will Rock You was insane, that's why it ran for 12 years in London's biggest theatre – a 2,500 seat theatre – and that's something we take great pride in.

‘Of course we soon ran out of besotted Queen fans – there's a lot of them, but they don't fill a theatre for 12 years. You have to do something that everybody loves.

‘It was this weird, aggressive snobbery and they tried to close us. There were lots of reviews saying: “Please don't go. Don't encourage it.”

‘I'm afraid to say it was artistic snobbery. The funny thing is they even got that wrong because Queen's music is high art. It might be hugely popular, but it is high art.

‘And though I say it myself, it’s actually it's a lot more difficult than people think to make a show that looks effortlessly funny.

‘I resent them for it. I don't think it was proper criticism. It was like: “Who the hell do Queen and Ben Elton think they are?”’

Ben does see it as turning point, though, in the way critics treat musicals.

‘The funny thing is, we changed things – now musicals get a lovely write up from critics. Since that day there's been far more care taken, it sort of never happened again.

‘Now musicals that aren't necessarily brilliant but are fairly good, and are a bit of cheesy fun, get four star reviews: “It will put a smile on your face”. I think critics are more wary of being snobbish, and that's a good thing.

‘The pleasure I get from having, and I don't call it "won", is from still standing after they said it will be gone in a week.

‘Twenty years ago The Stage newspaper said it will be gone in a week. We did 12 years in the West End and here we are celebrating 20 years with a tour.’

Elton became involved in the musical project after being approached by Queen’s long-term manager Jim Beach.

‘Jim Beach wanted to do something theatrically with Queen's greatest hits – of which there are an awful lot! It's uniquely theatrical music – if ever a band's music lent itself to the theatre with its bombastic, operatic quality, it’s theirs.’

Beach had been working on a serious musical biography of Queen’s iconic frontman Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from Aids in 1991.

‘While Queen, the band, were very supportive, they didn't feel in the long run that it was the right thing to do with Queen's music, because Queen's music is fun, it's glorious, it's upbeat, it's got a huge sense of humour. And above all, it's for everyone, it's not just about Freddie.

‘Everybody has their stories about Queen's music – it's been with us all of our lives. I left home when I was 16 because I was going away to study drama, and Bohemian Rhapsody was number one for the whole of that first lonely term...

‘So they decided not to do the Freddie story – they left that 20 years and then did it as a movie – which I think is much more appropriate.

‘But they still wanted to do a musical, and the big thing that Brian (May, guitarist) and John (Deacon, bassist) and Roger (Taylor, drums) said was that they wanted it to be funny, and not take itself too seriously, and have a glorious sense of fun.’

With his pedigree as a stand-up and as writer on hit TV shows Blackadder, The Young Ones and Thin Blue Line, ‘they all decided on me.’

‘Jim approached me on their behalf and said: “Would you be interested in thinking about a narrative context for their music on stage?”

‘I was hugely interested, but I was also very busy around the turn of the century – I was directing my first feature film, Maybe Baby with Hugh Laurie and also writing a musical with Andrew Lloyd Webber, which became The Beautiful Game.

‘But it was in my head and I couldn't stop thinking about.

‘I went to them and said, you are the legendary band – they're huge, there's something almost gothic about the scale of what they do – so what you need is a good fun legend, something Arthurian. We need something like King Arthur meets The Matrix, and they all went "Yeah!" and punched the air and said that sounded good.

‘So, how about a world where rock music has been banned by the corporate entertainment machine, and all of the instruments have been destroyed, but there's one like the sword in the stone – one guitar left buried in rock. They loved and said it was perfect for Queen.

‘They still love it.

‘They're going to come down and see it on Saturday just to check it out – both of them came in on rehearsals, Brian and Roger are still as involved as I am 20 years on.’

‘No production or indeed performance of We Will Rock You is ever quite the same. We rely on the comic instincts and the rock bones of our performers.

‘They have different voices in different productions – Brian or Roger might come in and say I think she could sing that an octave down, that might work better, or he's got an amazing falsetto – we work with the human element.

‘We don't see our actors as something that's just stuck in to a template.

‘With the comedy I have to rehearse because comedy is hard – it's a lot harder than doing regular theatre.

‘Comic timing is a really rare quality.

‘And when you're looking for actors who've got great comic timing, can dance and sing Bohemian Rhapsody... that's a very rare combination.’

We Will Rock You was on tour when the pandemic struck – shutting theatres and venues down for months. The lack of live entertainment in society is foreshadowed by We Will Rock You’s story.

Most of the team from the 2019/20 tour have returned for this production.

Ben enthuses: ‘Rock and roll, live art is back! What's great about We Will Rock You, and I say this every day to the company when I rehearse them, our show is actually about a world where there's been no live entertainment for years – well, centuries in the play – that's what it's actually about!

‘Live entertainment has disappeared from the culture, and then these young crazy kids find this guitar and bring it back.

‘The funny thing is that's what we're actually doing – bringing rock'n'roll back after two years where it had disappeared.

‘It's kind of ironic but rather fun that our show is about the very thing that we're actually doing.’

There was talk of making a film of We Will Rock You, but that has fallen by the wayside.

‘We were developing a film,’ says Ben, ‘there were a lot of talks about it and I had a lot of meetings with De Niro's company, I went to NY and talked to them about it.

‘He was involved in the early stages because he's a big fan.

‘But then Bohemian Rhapsody got into development and that was the end of that. We might one day come back to it, but let's face it, they were right, Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the most successful films ever made, so I can't fault their logic.’

The film was a massive box office hit, and won numerous awards, including a best actor Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe for Rami Malek as Freddie.

‘Jim Beech made the right decision to focus on Bohemian Rhapsody, and let We Will Rock You stay in the live theatres, but you never know, one day... Start a petition!’ says Ben with a chuckle.

Away from We Will Rock You, Ben is hoping to revive his stage version of the Shakespearean sitcom Upstart Crow. With David Mitchell recreating his TV role as The Bard, it opened to great acclaim in February 2020.

‘It was my first play in the West End in 20 years and it was a wonderful thing and it did get tremendous reviews and we did get nominated for an Olivier and we were sold out.

‘But it got closed after three weeks.

Upstart Crow was one of the many casualties of the pandemic and personally very sad for me, but we're going to bring it back.

‘I had dinner with David Mitchell in London just the other day.

‘The one thing about writing a comedy about Shakespeare is that it doesn't date!

‘We're really hoping to get it back into London this year, but the problem is theatres because there's so many shows backed up. We're never going to get those two years back, and it's quite hard to get into a building.’

We Will Rock You was also on tour when the lockdown began, stopping it in its tracks.

‘The real tragedy is the performers. They all lost their jobs overnight, and they didn't get furloughed either because most of them are self-employed.

‘The performing arts, hospitality, music, all the fun stuff suffered more horribly more than anything else.

‘Remember all of those adverts saying: “Why don't you retrain as systems programmer? We don't want ballerinas anymore.”

‘Well we do want ballerinas! And we want singers, and actors – what's the point of life if we can't have fun?’

We Will Rock You is at the Kings Theatre, Southsea from February 7-12. Tickets from £23-£38. Go to kingsportsmouth.co.uk.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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