Roger Taylor on Robert De Niro’s ‘completely left-field’ involvement in We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You ran at the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End for 12 years from 2002-2014 and continues to tour to this day. This week’s episode of Queen the Greatest looked back at the Queen musical’s journey, featuring an interview with Roger Taylor remembering Robert De Niro’s involvement in the hit show. Originally, the storyline was to follow the life of Freddie Mercury, but the Hollywood legend had found this idea difficult to work with.
After a chance meeting at the Venice Film Festival, Roger said: “We had a series of scripts given to us, and Robert De Niro, strangely, took an interest, which came completely from left-field and said he was starting the theatrical arm of Tribeca, his company, and he’d like us – this – our musical, to be his first thing. So we ended up co-producing it.”
Interestingly, at the time of We Will Rock You’s launch De Niro talked of the possibility of a film version of the show, but the screenplay is still yet to see the light of day.
On comedy writer Ben Elton’s script for the stage musical, the Queen drummer shared: “And it’s ended up being hugely funny as well as, you know making some points which Ben normally manages to weave into anything he does. And so I think it’s a very good mixture of having something to say, having a sort of slightly silly story, but very funny and hopefully uplifting with tonnes and tonnes of hits.”
Brian May said of the dystopian future storyline: “It is funny, and it’s also… it has a kind of serious side to it, it has something to say and I think it will… You better bring your handkerchief as well. I think there are some, some moments where you will feel something, something rather sad and feel something rather personal.”
Brian continued: “Very often we’ve made very small changes to the lyrics and sometimes none at all. And somehow they just seem to fit the story incredibly well. Now this isn’t an accident. You know, we’ve moulded the story around the songs, and we’ve moulded the songs around the story.
“It’s not just like, let’s sling some songs into a story at all. It’s very much, I guess, we always took our work very seriously. So this is a genuine attempt, if you like, to make something which will stand for the rest of time as a musical, and perhaps some people in the future will forget that these songs ever had a life elsewhere. I don’t know.”
The two active Queen members, Elton and De Niro all reunited for a 10th anniversary performance of We Will Rock You in 2012.
The writer said at the time: “We’ve had a laugh for ten years and so have the audience so we’re thrilled, absolutely thrilled.”
And the Queen guitarist added: “6 million people have been to this building to see the show over the last ten years, but we’ve always been doing new stuff for the show, just keeping it alive and moving, evolving.”
According to this week’s episode of Queen the Greatest: “From its opening night at the Dominion on 14 May 2002, We Will Rock You quickly became the overwhelming people’s choice of musical in the UK and overseas. In its second year at the Dominion it won top honours in five categories in the Theatregoers Choice awards including Best New Musical. In 2011, nine years after the curtain first went up, the show won the prestigious Olivier Awards Audience Award, the only category voted for entirely by the public. The show went on to win a number of international awards for productions around the globe.
“By the time the show closed at London’s Dominion Theatre on 31 May 2014, We Will Rock You had become the longest-running show ever at the Dominion by a margin of nine years and performed an astonishing 4600 times. Taking its rightful place in West End history, the show sits proudly in the Top 10 longest-running musicals of all time notching up over four and a half thousand standing ovations!”
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The episode added: “Internationally too, the show became a global phenomenon, playing in more than 20 countries and entertaining well over 15 million people. And today, twenty years after that opening night, We Will Rock You is still going strong around the world, and with a new tour about to start in the UK, clearly Queen will be rocking the theatrical world for many more nights to come”
To book tickets for the We Will Rock You UK Tour which kicks off on February 7 in Portsmouth, click here.
The episode added: “Internationally too, the show became a global phenomenon, playing in more than 20 countries and entertaining well over 15 million people. And today, twenty years after that opening night, We Will Rock You is still going strong around the world, and with a new tour about to start in the UK, clearly, Queen will be rocking the theatrical world for many more nights to come”
To book tickets for the We Will Rock You UK Tour which kicks off on February 7 in Portsmouth, click here.
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