★★★½☆ Best rock gig in town or play-safe nostalgia-fest? Depends what you’re after.

Sydney Lyric
May 5, 2016

This is the future. We are living on an iPlanet where real music has died and downloads rule. The kids are brainwashed conformists, brought up on Ga Ga, a toxic mix of social media and manufactured pop. They must never, ever be exposed to the power of rock or they will rebel. This is life according to We Will Rock You, Ben Elton’s infamous 2002 musical, set to the songs of Queen. But why infamous?

Back then, the Rock Theatrical’s London debut received probably the worst reviews in a decade. Many felt the show to be as manufactured as the music of the future that the show purports to decry. The plot copped a pasting: Ben Elton “should be shot”, wailed the UK’s Daily Mirror. Everyone thought it would close the following week, but no, the public took it to its heart and opened their wallets in hordes, ensuring a healthy run of 12 years and a string of productions worldwide, not the least of which was the original 2003 Melbourne staging where Elton (half Australian, now living in Fremantle) had the...