In an electrifying climax to the opening night of We Will Rock You, the Queen juke-box musical, in Edinburgh on Monday night, Brian May and Roger Taylor, the guitarist and drummer of the original Queen line-up, appeared onstage to play live in the final encore, the classic Bohemian Rhapsody.
The 3,000 strong audience in a packed Edinburgh Playhouse rose as one to their feet with a roar of approval as May in his familiar 18th century ringlets and plain white shirt appeared from the darkness at the back of the stage to take the famous guitar solo live.
But just as the audience was adjusting to having their idol playing live in front of them there was an even bigger surprise. Taylor, mounted on a huge gilded drum set, rolled down to the front of the stage, even producing a pair of softer timpani sticks for the final cymbal roll.
Before that, Ben Elton’s clever book and direction, which unites more than a dozen complete Queen tracks and references to many more in a futuristic storyline , had already won over the gala audience.
Bohemian Rhapsody, perhaps Queen’s most famous track, is not actually part of the show, though there are references to the impenetrable lyrics throughout and the two main characters are called Galileo and Scaramouche. It is performed as an almost inevitable encore.
The climax to the storyline comes first with a rousing rendition of We are the Champions which already had many of the audience on their feet and the rest waving their arms in the air as if it was real rock concert.
Indeed the sound and light show would put many a rock concert to shame and for once the stage band, playing live high at the back of the stage, reproduced the familiar songs impeccably and was impeccably balanced.
In a nice touch, Taylor gave the young fair haired drummer in the stage band a squeeze around the shoulders at the final curtain call. Most of the audience were not aware that it was his son Rufus.
This touring production of the show, which originally premiered in London in 2002, has settled into the Playhouse for the festive season and runs until January 9.
