Like attending a joyous religious service: We Will Rock You, at the Coliseum, reviewed
One of the earliest jukebox musicals has returned to the West End. When the show opened in 2002 the author, Ben Elton, plugged his production on TV chat shows with a wisecracking slogan: ‘We Will Rock You isn’t just a title… it’s a promise.’ The easy-listening storyline draws inspiration from the Old Testament and from Mad Max. We’re in a dystopian future world ruled by faceless corporations that sell mass-produced garbage to zombified youngsters addicted to their mobile phones. A tribe of exiles, the Bohemians, roam the underworld in search of the relics of a vanished culture known as ‘rock’n’roll’. The Bohemians meet a visionary outcast, Galileo, who recites song
![](https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Elena-Skye-as-Scaramouche-Ian-McIntosh-as-Galileo-Figaro-Ben-Elton-as-Rebel-Leader-with-We-Will-Rock-You-cast-Photo-Credit-Manuel-Harlan.jpg?w=440)