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Search forWe Will Rock You is coming to Bristol Hippodrome
Monday, August 18, 2008, 08:00
The show, written by comedian Ben Elton and based on the music of legendary rock band Queen, will come to the city in September as part of the show's first UK tour.
It will start in Manchester in March, then visit Sunderland and Birmingham before coming to Bristol for a six-week run until the end of October, finally going on to Edinburgh.
Tickets for the show go on general sale on September 15, but Bristol Evening Post readers who collect special tokens in the newspaper will be able to buy them from September 1. Gary Roden, the general manager of the Hippodrome – which has featured musicals such as Mamma Mia, Evita and Dr Dolittle already this year – was delighted that the show is coming to Bristol.
He said: "It is brilliant news once again for the theatre and the city.
"We Will Rock You has been a phenomenal success in London and has been seen by over six million people worldwide, and we have no doubt whatsoever that the show will be a sell-out success story for the Hippodrome.
"This is one of the shows that the people of Bristol have been asking to land on their doorstep, and we are only too happy to oblige. It will be the hot ticket for 2009, and I would urge people to snap up tickets sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment."
We Will Rock You first opened at the West End's Dominion Theatre in 2002. Since then almost four million tickets have been sold for 2,300 performances, grossing more than £100 million at the box office.
It has also been shown all around the world, from Tokyo to Toronto and Melbourne to Madrid, and swept the board at the 2003 Theatregoers' Choice Awards, picking up the five gongs and the award for best new musical.
The show also packs in 24 of Queen's biggest hits, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions and I Want To Break Free.
Scripted by Ben Elton, who collaborated with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, the story is set on earth 300 years into the future.
Everyone wears the same clothes, watches the same films and thinks the same thoughts. Music is also generated by one company, and musical instruments are banned.
But resistance comes in the form of a man called Galileo, a hero who will help the world break free.
Elton, who rose to prominence in the early 1980s when he co-wrote the sitcom The Young Ones – much of which was set in Bristol – said: "I had almost given up trying to find a story that could contain the incredible richness, wit and variety of Queen's greatest hits.
"Then the idea suddenly came to me – a world where young people are denied the right to make music for themselves, to do what Elvis and the Beatles did, to form bands, write songs and start a revolution in their heads.
"I really thought Queen could illustrate that beautifully, and of course the fact that they are ultimate rock gods and the stuff of legend anyway meant that it was a terrifically fun story to weave."
Elton will direct the show that will come to Bristol himself, while May and Taylor will be musical directors, and the trio are expecting to visit at some point during the run. And he said that the production that comes here will probably be the best yet.
He said: "We Will Rock You is constantly developing. When it comes to Bristol it will probably be better than anything we have done, with new jokes and all the wisdom we have learned from around the world.
"We are used to putting the big version of the show on, and that is what we will be bringing to Bristol. People will be getting the full We Will Rock You experience.
"So far we have never failed to get a standing ovation, so we hope Bristol likes it.
"I promise we will bring a show that will blow the audience's socks off.
"We Will Rock You isn't just a title – it's a promise."
Brian May added: "We are excited to be able, finally, to send a brand new, top class We Will Rock You company out on tour around the UK. The mother ship, in the Dominion Theatre, will be rockin' on all the while, keeping the home fires burning until further notice."
Tickets for We Will Rock You go on sale to Evening Post readers/ Groups 10+ / Live Nation card holders on Monday, September 1. Special tokens will appear in the Bristol Evening Post from August 29.
Tickets do not go on general sale until 10am on September 15.
The show will run from September 16 to October 31 next year. Evening performances will start at 7.30pm, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm, except September 16, 2009.
Tickets cost between £21 and £40, with concessions available, excluding Saturdays.
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