Thanks, Queen, for a musical that rocks

By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Audiences at the 5th Avenue Theatre are finding out what Queen's music as the soundtrack is like in a stage musical. It rocks. "We Will Rock You," which opened Tuesday for a six-day run in Seattle through June 13, is an entertaining story of a futuristic police state where rock and roll music has been banned. For fans of Queen's iconic songs, it's like a greatest-hits album. They're all here - "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Radio Ga Ga," "Somebody to Love," "Under Pressure" and more. And their presentation takes old rock concert fans back to the days when live music really was about the music. Created by British writer-director Ben Elton and with musical oversight from two Queen members, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, the show gets terrific performances from, among others, Ruby Lewis as a skeptic who unleashes her inner rocker chick in tandem with Brian Justin Crum, who reignites rock in his role as the dreamer hero. The only negative, and that doesn't even seem like the right word, is that at two-plus hours, "We Will Rock You" is a bit of an endurance test. But who cares? Rock on.

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