Pomp-rockers Queen were often called ‘theatrical’, and now the description has taken on a literal meaning. As the legendary band’s baroque ’n’ roll is re-imagined for the Esplanade stage, Edward Choy meets the actors of We Will Rock You 

Singapore has hosted a slew of family orientated West End and Broadway staples in recent years, from The Phantom of the Opera to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. So when you hear that the Esplanade has booked a show like We Will Rock You – the successful production based on Queen’s hits, which will soon have clocked six years in London – you might be thinking, ‘Ah, maybe I’ll bring the kids to this one.’ 

Unless your kids are in their teens, you would be well advised to leave them at home. We have it on good authority from the show’s lead actors and people who’ve already seen it that this is the loudest show in the history of musical theatre. If you’ve ever watched a compilation (also known as ‘jukebox’) musical, you’ll know that it’s a simple formula: take the songs of a popular singer or group, insert these songs into an uninspired narrative, everyone goes home happy. Think Mamma Mia!, which played here in 2004. 

This show is a little different. MiG Ayesa, who plays the lead character Galileo Figaro, reckons that ‘it’s more of a rock concert set to a story’. Galileo is a rebel out to bring back rock and freedom in a draconian society run by nemesis (wait for it) Killer Queen, played by Annie Crummer. Crummer’s description of the show is succinct: ‘It’s so loud, and it’s so not theatre.’ She loves to sneak out into the theatre during technical rehearsals and ‘feel the sound from the opening sequence pushing you back into the seat’. ‘Roger and Brian wouldn’t have wanted to put their name to anything that could be called a “musical”,’ Crummer adds. 

Yes, she means Queen drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May. Indeed, both Taylor and May famously had an aversion to the genre prior to collaborating with the show’s writer, Ben Elton. ‘Abba didn’t create Mamma Mia!, but Queen was fully involved in the creation process,’ says Ayesa. In fact, Taylor and May auditioned Crummer themselves. ‘I had no idea that I would be doing it in front of them,’ Crummer says, with genuine awe in her voice. ‘They were just so cool, made everyone feel at ease, and they made me feel great.’ It wasn’t until she’d landed the part and was recording ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ in Taylor’s London studio – where her voice was mixed with that of Queen’s late, legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury – that it really hit her: ‘I was quietly imploding while I was in there, man…I was very jealous of myself.’ 

We Will Rock You’s plotline fuses the flamboyance of Queen’s music to a futuristic dystopia in a story set three centuries from now. Earth is an Orwellian nightmare of conformity and subordination. But there are rebels, known as Bohemians (but of course), and Galileo is one of them. In this world, musical instruments are forbidden, but Galileo sets out on a quest to find a guitar. With it, he can overcome the oppression of the establishment and restore freedom, love and rock ’n’ roll to the world. If this sounds faintly ludicrous, then that’s intentional; in the spirit of Queen and Mercury, Elton wasn’t interested in anything that took itself too seriously. After all, Mercury himself was completely irreverent – and according to Ayesa, this is an ode to him. 

Ayesa hadn’t intended to audition for the show when he moved to London with his wife in late 2002. ‘I wanted to be a songwriter, get a deal with a label, that sort of thing,’ he says. But the first West End show he saw was We Will Rock You. ‘I realised that this was what I wanted, and I could move on from this to a “legitimate” career. Besides, even if it all doesn’t work out, I can still pretend to be a rock star eight times a week,’ he says. Though he might be playing a rock star, Ayesa can’t live like one. ‘You can’t go out and party every night,’ he says. ‘It’s kinda like being an athlete: gym in the morning, big lunch, don’t eat too soon before the show because obviously you can’t belch while you’re out there.’ 

There are a few things everyone should know before going to the show, the leads say. ‘Do not be late,’ Crummer warns. ‘You don’t want to miss the first five minutes when the sound, lights and video get the show off.’ Ayesa adds that all of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ will be performed live; in concert, Queen used to get a drink during the operatic section, which was played in its original version through loudspeakers. Then, of course, there’s the performance of the song that gives the show its title. ‘When you hear the clapping, softly at first, then building, and you think, “Oh my God, here it comes”, and when it hits you at full volume…’ Ayesa stops there. The man who’s played the lead role in the show for three years is at a loss for words. You’ll just have to watch it yourself to find out what the noise is all about. 

We Will Rock You opens 28 Mar at the Esplanade Theatre.