Over the last couple of years, our own Brian May has crowed constantly about his precious "We Will Rock You" musical (apparently it's the greatest thing since sliced bread...if you read the comments he makes on his web site. I've lost count of the praising adjectives.)
One thing he's gone on about is how each version of the show will reflect upon the country it's showing in. Using appropriate humor, pop culture references, etc to make it unique to that country. The UK, Australia and Spain have all seen this (the latter being translated into Spanish for the most part.) Ok, that's all well and good. It makes sense. Even the cast from each show are native to each country.
Now we have Las Vegas.
A big, spectaclar, wonderful, great, HUGE, super musical which America has never seen before and we should all bow to it's genius (sorry, I did a Brian there.)
{This bit is edited}
Who gets cast for the lead character in the show? Tony Vincent. The lead from the UK show.
Anybody find that odd? This was supposed to have been refined for American audiences yes? Why cast someone from another country's show when all the others so far have had their own "exclusive" actors for leads?
{End of edit}
Then instead of recording a cast album featuring the US actors, they are instead releasing....the UK cast album and considering the changes (songwise or other) it won't exactly match up will it?
So who's making these decisons then? Was it sheer laziness to cast Vincent? Were there no other worthy American actors who could handle the role?
I'm still curious about their decision to open the show in Vegas (and keep it there for the long term) and not go to Broadway. What are Queen afraid of? Yes, I've heard all the reasons behind it but it sounds like a smokescreen to me.
Of course this all leads to Mr. May and Mr. Taylor devoting so much of their time to a cheesy musical (let's face it, ALL musicals are cheesy.)
When one looks at the kind of projects the two have been involved in since "Made In Heaven", it makes one wonder....are they artistically bankrupt?
Remaking their own songs with questionable "artists" like 5ive, whoring their material out to whatever major corporation that asks, the Pepsi fiasco, etc.
Have "Queen" been diminished in your eyes? Do you have the same respect for them as you once did?
You know, there once was a time that I defended Queen's decisions but now that time has passed and such decisions have piled up like a massive interstate car wreck, I have to say that "Queen" have indeed been diminished by their own design.
This does not reflect upon what was done from 1995 to the beginning of their careers. It's post '95 that is the issue here.
Though it seems that most of this has been driven by May (Taylor's comments over the years have indicated that Brian pulled him in to these projects), Roger never the less went along for the ride.
There are those who will blindly buy and support everything Queen throws out to the masses. Even with the new US "hits" CD, I've read some comments as to how great it is, that it's worth buying just for the "new liner notes" alone. This is rather worrisome. I suppose I can understand being a collector but...a collector of what? The only true collector's these days are "Queen" themselves, collecting every dime they can from fans for what is, at best, marginally worthy product.
Sure there are the DVDs (which only saw improvement in overall quality last year though the DVD producers are clearly ignorant regarding OAR) but the one thing fans have been clamoring for, the archival box sets, aren't on the horizon. Why? Well the Russian leg of the musical is far more important of course.
I don't know where Queen is going but by the looks of it, the setting of Las Vegas for the musical is perhaps fitting afterall. Lots of glitz, lots of lights but no heart, substance or artistic merit.
(In the spirit of the musical, here's a question with a sci-fi
"Who gets cast for the lead character in the show? Tony Vincent. The lead from the UK show and most certainly not from America.
Anybody find that odd? This was supposed to have been refined for American audiences yes? Why cast a Brit then?"
Isn't Tony Vincent from Arizona?
Hmm, I could've sworn I read he was from the UK. I could be wrong of course. Does he have a web site that contains a biography?
I'll go see. If he is American then I'll have to remove that bit.
EDIT: His web site indicates he is American so I was wrong on that one. However he is closely associated with the UK show, why not start fresh with a newcomer?