[NEohioPAL] Review of "We WIll Rock You" at Blank Canvas Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

Surprisingly, Blank Canvas’ ‘We Will Rock You’ most certainly does



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, American Theatre Critics Association



 I kid you not.  



Ben Elton’s musical “We Will Rock You” tells the ridiculous tale of a small group of rebels in a highly corporatized dystopian future who are looking for a savior to revive the lost poetry once known as rock 'n' roll and save the souls of a lost world.  



The show uses the songs of Queen as both its soundtrack and the resistance fighters’ sacred text.  



And it borrows heavily from the 1930s and 1940s sci-fi motion picture serials to build its vision of dystopia, fashion the dark evildoers who control it, and generate the hero who will give them their comeuppance.



Sounds horrible, right?  



When the show premiered in the West End of London in 2002, it was uniformly panned by critics.  The Guardian noted that the show was “manufactured” and devised to create “unlikely ways to wring out another Queen song.”  The Daily Telegraph wrote that the musical was "guaranteed to bore you rigid” while The Daily Mirror suggested that the playwright be shot.  



But this musical is a marvelous confection in the hands of Blank Canvas director Patrick Ciamacco, who has a history of turning idiotic, idiosyncratic works like “Psycho Beach Party” and “Texas Chain Saw Musical” into surprisingly entertaining enterprises.



For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/
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