Rediscovering Rock through Queen at Mystic Lake

Last updated on February 18th, 2022 at 09:50 pm

Life is full of change. Our choices seem endless and humans can adapt to almost anything. Choosing a certain lifestyle can help shape someone’s life.

Interestingly enough, lifestyles can come with a stereotypical soundtrack, so much so that Kid Cudi wrote a song about it, “Soundtrack 2 My Life.” Each genre carries a very different message. The soundtrack of the theater musical We Will Rock You is one we all want in our life.

We Will Rock You stopped by Mystic Lake on its North American tour over the weekend. Using the soundtrack of Queen, it tells the story of the rebellious lifestyle Bohemians trying to discover what rock is and return a Matrix-like world back to reality.

It tells their story using the discography of the band, but it does not touch on what people have come to love from the Hollywood movie Bohemian Rhapsody. No, the lead actor does not have an overbite. Some in the crowd showed great disappointment and left soon thereafter.

The play started off by going through a timeline of great music history, flashing such things as “MTV was created” or “American Idol winner crowned.” The play itself has many modern touches in the future world. All members of society, or Yuppies as their called, are expected to conform to society. Except for the two leads fittingly named Galileo (Trevor Coll) and Scaramouche (Keri Kelly).

Yuppies are all expected to dress the same, in some cases wears glasses which would make Geordi La Forge from Star Trek proud. All of them wore matching accessories and the same hair style. I had trouble picking out who was who. As the story commences, Commander Khashoggi (Kyle Gruninger) tries to stop the Bohemians and the dreams of Galliello and Scaramouche during their quest to find the sacred Ax.

The fast introduction of the Bohemians made it tricky to follow along. Luckily, each one wore a distinct color to help you keep the characters straight. They are soon discovered by the government while hiding out in an abandoned Hard Rock Café, either killed or have their mind erased. Luckily, Galliello and Scaramouche escape to continue the quest. Once the Ax is discovered, music in reintroduced, played by Scaramouche, and the world which resembles the Matrix is then destroyed.

Do you want to live in a world where everything is thought to be the same and has no creativity? As the play put it, “who would want to be social since you have social media?” The rebels, Bohemians as they are called, challenged that status quo in their own unique way. This was described by one of the leaders of the Bohemians, Oz (played by Alysse Ernewein), in our previous interview with her.

The play itself is a nonstop ear and eye candy extravaganza. The singing and choreography is nothing short of spectacular. The play carries more musical puns than all the dad jokes in the world.

This is not a normal performance theater performance. The cast encourages you to sing along and participate to your heart’s desire. So much so that the gentleman sitting on the right of me, who was obviously intoxicated, rarely sat down. He danced and sang through the whole show, which only added to the experience.

The play wraps up with the Bohemians sharing their Rhapsody with their new intact minds. Crowd participation is mandatory for this final rock scene before closing out the show.

It’s been said often, but We Will Rock You shows how music brings us all together.

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