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We Will Rock You is a musical based on the songs of Queen and named after their hit single, written by Brian May, of the same name. The musical was written by Ben Elton the comedian and author in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The musical was produced by David and Ed Mirvish and The Kimsa Group, in association with Queen Theatrical Productions, Phil McIntyre Entertainment and Tribeca Theatrical Productions, with Christopher Renshaw as director, Mark Fisher as the production designer, Willie Williams as the lighting designer, Tim Goodchild as the costume designer, Arlene Phillips as choreographer and Bobby Aitken as sound designer.

According to Brian May, Queen’s manager Jim Beach had talked with the band on the idea of creating a jukebox musical with Queen’s songs since the mid-90s. Initially, the intent was to create a biographical story of Freddie Mercury. About this time, Robert DeNiro’s production company Tribeca voiced interest in a Queen musical, but found the original idea difficult to work with.

In the year 2000, Ben Elton was approached to start talks with May and Queen dummer Roger Taylor on the project. Elton suggested taking the musical down a different path than initially imagined, creating an original story that would still be able to “capture the spirit of much of [their] music”. He worked closely with May and Taylor to incorporate Queen’s songs into the story. Ben has also stated that he was in part inspired by the computer-controlled dystopia of the science-fiction film The Matrix. The We Will Rock You script was eventually completed midway through 2001.

The original London production of the musical began previews on the 26th April 2002 and opened on the 14th May 2002 at the Dominion Theatre, with Tony Vincent, Hannah Jane Fox, Sharon D. Clarke and Kerry Ellis in principal roles. London’s critics were almost uniformly hostile in criticising the concept and direction. The Guardian described the premise as “really is as sixth form as it sounds”, the production as “ruthlessly packaged and manufactured” and the libretto as “sometimes funny” and existing mainly to “devise more unlikely ways to wring out another Queen song”.

However We Will Rock You was an audience favourite and on the 17th August 2005 it became the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre surpassing the previous record-holder Grease. This is particularly notable because the Dominion Theatre is one of the largest theatrical venues in West End, with a seating a capacity of 2,000 people. The production was scheduled to close on 7th October 2006, but it has been extended to 4th October 2008. The longest-serving principal cast member of the London production is Mazz Murray, who took over the role of Killer Queen in April 2004, and will continue until the show closes in October 2008.

A number of international productions have followed the original, and We Will Rock You has been seen in Australia, Las Vegas, Moscow, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Zurich, New Zealand and South Korea. As of March 2008, productions are still active in Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Canada and Vienna.

In early 2007 Queen Theatrical granted the rights for a non-equity production of We Will Rock You at the Jedlicka Performing Art Centre in Chicago making it the first North American production since the Las Vegas show closed.

International productions of the musical feature changes in the story and song line-up in order to better reach target audiences. All the main characters retain their general personalities across productions, but the names vary depending on the production.