We Will Rock You 10th Anniversary

Posted by on May 24, 2012 in News | 0 comments

We Will Rock You posterThe hit London musical We Will Rock You recently celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Dominion Theatre London. Despite lukewarm reviews upon opening to the press on 14th May 2002, the show has gone on to defy sceptics, winning numerous awards and joining the ranks of other long running musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. No one is more surprised by the show’s continued success than book writer Ben Elton and Queen performer Brian May who championed the show and were initially worried after the critical onslaught. In 2010 the show won the Olivier Award for Best Long Running Musical as voted for by members of the public, proving that it is really the public who determine the success of a show, rather than the critics. This has been likened to the opening of Les Miserables in 1985, which achieved similarly bad press, which led to a record day of sales at the box office as the public embraced the show.

On May 15 the show celebrated 10 historic years in the West End with a star studded gala performance for fans of the show and celebrities. The current cast performed the musical, with members of Queen in attendance to help the proceedings along. Noel Sullivan and Brenda Edwards brought the house down with standards such as ‘Killer Queen’, ‘I Want to Break Free’ and ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, and the audience rose to its feet in appreciation.

Samantha Fox was among the guests at the event, dressed up in relevant glam rock attire and praised the show saying that Freddie would have been very proud. Actress Emma Thompson, comedian and songwriter (and soon to be Judas) Tim Minchin joined in on the fun, along with the cast of TOWIE and other reality TV celebrities. Over the past 10 years We Will Rock You has employed a number of reality TV performers, from Lauren Samuels from BBC’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ to Noel Sullivan of the original ‘Popstars’ fame. Original cast member Tony Vincent is one of the rare examples of someone going the other way, as he has just been a part of the second US season of The Voice, after playing Galileo for the opening run.

The biggest celebrity surprise of the night came in the shape of Robert De Nero who graced the red carpet as a special guest of May and Elton. May was over the moon to attend and host the event, and offered his deepest thanks to everyone who has helped the show over the past decade:  “My personal thanks to everyone who has helped us nurture it over the years … to all the wonderful cast members, our brilliant band and EVERYONE who has made this show one of the greatest events of the last decade”

Enjoy this video of Bohemian Rhapsody as performed at the 10th Anniversary We Will Rock You Gala: 

Show Length and Times

We Will Rock You can be seen at the Dominion Theatre near Tottenham Court Road station, with performances taking place every evening from Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm and matinee shows on both Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm. There is no show on Sundays. The running time for the musical is approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes including one interval, and tickets are presently booking until March 2012.