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On Wednesday 18th
June 2003 together with Mark and Ralph (It was their 3rd visit), I travelled from The
Netherlands to see the WWRY musical in London for the 7th time.
We had "just" seen the musical two weeks before but because of the official celebration of
the first year run of the musical we had decided to go again.
We were recognised and greeted by Dave, the doorman and reunited with other Queenfans who had visited the musical
two weeks before. We were even recognised by the guy who runs
the WWRY shop inside the theatre. During our last visit we were
interested in the amazing glass mirrors, encraved with the WWRY
logo. When he spotted us he asked if we already had bought one!
This is one of the nicer sidesteps of visiting the musical more
often. People get to know you, such as members of the cast and
even employees!
A lot of celebrities were
present, Brian, Roger, Jim Beach, Peter Freestone, two main
characters of the Spanish edition of the musical etc etc.
Before and after the show we spoke with Hanna J Fox, Sharon D
Clarke, Kerry, Tony Vincent, AND Brian May and Roger Taylor. They all found
time to put their signature on items the fans had brought with
them and to make photographs. I felt this was to become a very special
evening. Besides the three of us the other seats in our row (row
O) stayed completely empty and so were the two seats right in front of
me. The rows in front of us happened to be taken by
celebrities and people selected through the WhatsOnStage
community. Just before the lights went out the three of us
couldn't believe our eyes. The two seats in front of us were
taken by Brian May and his driver. You can imagine we completely
missed out on the first minutes of the musical opening. Believe me it's so extraordinary to witness one of the
creators of the Musical - one of the members of Queen - enjoy
the show in the way he did. He reacted with sincere enthousiasm and
respect for the performers especially during No-One
But You (the most emotional moment in the show),
Somebody to Love, Headlong, Hammer To Fall, Too Much Love Will
Kill You, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. It makes you realise even more that his heart and soul is
IN this musical. It was amazing to see how he truly loves the show and the way it's
performed. And it still makes him laugh, especially the way
Hanna Jane Fox acts! Having witnessed this it was confirmed to
me what a piece of excellent work Brian, Roger and Ben Elton
(and the cast) have created and how Brian is involved in this
project. I wish I could convince everybody how great this
musical is. Be part of the audience and you'll be part of a
Queen party, a celebration of Queen music and homage to Freddie
Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon and their
everlasting music.
After the show theater awards were presented on stage to
Hanna, Sharon and Tony Vincent. And to Queen the award for Best New
Musical. Later that evening we went to see the Freddie Mercury
Photo Exhibition that's on the first floor of the Dominion. (Brian,
Tony and some others of the cast showed up also).
Btw, the statue of Freddie outside the Dominion is impressive,
even though his face differs from the statue in Montreux. Though
the statue in Montreux shows more resemblence to Freddie, the
one on the Dominion still looks great, especially when you look
at it right from beneath it.
Well, it was a splendid evening that I sure will remember!
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