07-10-2006 – The Star – Can this Queen net a full house?

Will T.O get rocked by Mercury musical?

Who will rock us … and when?

Those are the questions being asked after Queen guitarist Brian May published a letter in the Ottawa Citizen last Thursday, claiming that a Canadian version of We Will Rock You would be opening at the Princess of Wales Theatre in 2007.

John Karastamatis, director of communications for Mirvish Productions, insists “nothing has been signed yet for the summer of 2007.”

But one of the city’s largest talent agencies told the Star it was told to prepare clients for We Will Rock You auditions in January 2007 in anticipation of a possible opening next summer.

Tell me, Scaramouche, who’s doing the fandango here?

This juxebox tuner hangs the songs of Queen onto a mock sci-fi plot about a repressive society 300 years from now that has banned rock music.

It first opened in London in 2002 to largely appalling reviews that inspired adjectives like “shallow,” “stupid,” “vapid” and “trite.” Nonetheless, it’s been playing to largely packed houses ever since. So far, the only incursion that We Will Rock You has made into North America was a failed Las Vegas production in 2004.

The Mirvishes have toyed with the Queen show before, first announcing it as part of their 2004-2005 subscription season, then dumping it in favor of Evita, only to sniff around it once again a few months later, finally putting it to rest once The Lord of the Rings entered the picture to claim all their attention (and money).

While it might possibly make sense to bring in a touring production of We Will Rock You to fill a Mirvish subscription slot and benefit from next summer’s tourists, that’s not what is being discussed. The plan is to cast and mount the production here with all local talent. While that’s good news for everyone who’s been longing to do “Bohemian Rhapsody” as an audition, one can’t help but feel a bit of skepticism.

Why would the Mirvishes mount yet another open-ended production of a musical after losing so much money on similar exercises with The Producers, Hairspray and The Lord of the Rings? Do they really think there are enough Freddie Mercury fans in the GTA to keep this going for several years?

A major American theatrical publicist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told me this: “The producers of We Will Rock You have always wanted it to tour America. They know they’d be slaughtered on Broadway, but they’re positive they could get a couple of highly lucrative years out of the show on the road. The only problem has been where to mount that tour.”

That’s where Toronto comes in. Call it the Mamma Mia! Strategy. Back in 2000, Mamma Mia! opened here with a Canadian cast, and then proceeded to tour North America with that same group for over a year. (It also did so well in Toronto that they had to keep the show running with a different second cast.)

That seems to be the plan with We Will Rock You: start it here, then take it off to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and so on. The only hitch seems to be that all of the pieces of the deal aren’t solidly in place yet. Brian May wants it to happen, so he’ll confidently say so to the press. But the Mirvishes are wisely a bit more cautious, which is why the statement that “nothing has been signed yet” is a truthful one.

It’s also why the auditions are still many, many months in the future. We Will Rock You may very well open at the Princess of Wales Theatre next summer, but then again, it may not.

There’s a lot of other shows out there, all of them hoping to play here next summer. It was initially trumpted that The Light in the Piazza would be coming to Toronto in July 2007. Then the dates were pulled off their schedule when the announcement proved to be premature.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has a nice gap in its tour that would fit a Toronto run next summer as well. And if The Drowsy Chaperone goes out on the road a year from now (as it’s expected to), what better place to start a tour in than the city of its birth?

And how about Jersey Boys? The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee? The Color Purple? The Wedding Singer?

There’s an embarrassment of riches available out there for Toronto to choose from, but for the time being, no particular show can be 100 per cent sure that it’s going to be the one to sing “We Are The Champions” here next summer.

Sorry about that, Freddie.