We Will Rock You: Joyously off the planet

We Will Rock You, in which rock-pop-glam gods Queen meet cheesy sci-fi, is radiantly, fabulously bonkers.

Jaz Flowers, Thern Reynolds, Erin Clare and Gareth Keegan lead the youth wing of the rebels in We Will Rock You. Picture: Jeff Busby

We Will Rock You, in which the music of 1970s rock-pop-glam gods Queen meets cheesy sci-fi, is radiantly, fabulously bonkers. We are deep into the future and earth is ruled by a technocracy that enforces bland uniformity. Introductory titles tell of a dread fate: “Life is lived online.” OK, that bit isn’t so bonkers given Ben Elton wrote the show in 2002 and it now looks prescient. The rest is, though.

In the world now known as ­iPlanet, music has been homogenised and most people go with the officially sanctioned flow. But a band of free spirits yearns to break free, people whose speech is littered with quotations from long-lost songs, uttered as sacred poetry. Fragments of knowledge from the glory days of rock have survived in corrupted form, giving us men called Britney and Madonna and a woman called Ozzy Osbourne. An ancient video tape — pronounced vi-DAY-o tappy — is a cherished relic.

That joke, by the way, gets more than one outing but raises a big laugh each time. As do Elton’s shameless musical references — the Beatles, Spice Girls, Gangnam Style and the Wiggles among them. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want. Why do fools fall in love? Why is Jeff asleep? Elton throws everything at the wall to see what sticks.

We Will Rock You is also replete with allusions to Arthurian legend, end-of-days Rapture and the longing for a messiah as the Bohemians wait for a man who can lead them out of their bunker to musical freedom.

It’s pure hokum, obviously, but serves its purpose oddly well. It’s not a big stretch to fit Queen’s high-octane songs into a scenario so gleefully theatrical, knowing, camp and reverential, sometimes all at once. And what songs, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are the Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, Killer Queen and the title song delivered by a spot-on cast and spectacularly good band led by David Skelton. Profound thanks to sound designer Bobby Aitken for delivering quality and plenty of kick without ear-tearing volume.

Gareth Keegan, Erin Clare, Jaz Flowers and Thern Reynolds lead the youth wing of the rebels vividly (Clare and Flowers are outstanding) and it was an inspiration to enlist Brian Mannix’s frayed but indomitable 1980s rock-star vibe to the cause. On the dark side, Casey Donovan is a ferocious Killer Queen, unbeatable vocally when she gets into the sweet spot (a couple of songs start uncomfortably low for her), and Simon Russell oozes corporate villainy as her oleaginous offsider.

I doubt the deep future will revere We Will Rock You as a masterpiece of 21st century musical theatre but the show cannily knows exactly what it is and delivers.

It’s deliriously, majestically mad entertainment.

We Will Rock You. Lyric Theatre, Sydney, May 5.

Tickets: $61.40-$139.90. Bookings: 1300 795 267. Duration: 2 hours 45 minutes. Until June 26. Brisbane from July 10; Melbourne from August 30; Perth, from November; Adelaide, from January 2017.