The Seek - We Will Rock You II - The Show Must Go On

Funny! I reckon a better name for We Will Rock You 2 is Don't Stop Me Now. The Show Must Go On would be Part 3 I think. And I hear you all say "God forbid"? ,,,,lol!

In my opinion closing We Will Rock You in the hope of opening an equally or more successful musical seems a bit of a gamble. WWRY is still very popular and lucrative (to my knowledge), but when it first opened in 2002 it was panned by critics and some would say only saved by the music. But with the 'sequel', the great Queen songs have been used: the incredible We Are The Champions finale and the enjoyable Bohemian Rhapsody encore have all been done. So if the new musical is relying on a good story alone, then it's going to struggle. I'm not saying that the singles that aren't featured in WWRY are bad, but they're not as well known, and part of WWRY is joining in at the end, and quietly tapping your head to the songs you and everyone else knows. If they use, for example, The Miracle, The Invisible Man and Let Me Live in the new show, these are good enough songs, but are not as well known to the general public. I think they should have developed the new production further before making the hasty decision to close WWRY because the chances are, it won't be as successful. I may be totally wrong of course. An updated version of the current WWRY with the same songs, characters and maybe just a revised script and some added new songs, may have been the best, or safest thing to do.

That's definitely a risk I think! Although you could also argue that most people who went to see 1 and enjoyed it,will want to come and see 2. And being in London of course, at least in the first instance, there should be plenty of people who will know the lesser singles.

I mean Made in Heaven went quadruple platinum! And Greatest Hits 2 did OK last time I checked as well! Might be more of an issue in other countries where their later stuff didn't have quite the same revival that it did in the UK.

I believe that WWRY is coming to an end at the Dominion because the theatre wouldn't agree to another six month run because they are eager to carry out renovation, and general maintenance work on the building. This can't be done while the building is in regular use.

This is the reason why Queen have gone ahead with The Show Must Go On. As a west end show they would have had two choices. Move to another theatre, time consuming and costly, or use the situation to their advantage. Remember that the idea for the new show was already written, and at one point there was talk about both shows running in the west end. They have used WWRY closing as a spring board to make everyone aware of what's to come. Originally WWRY had a sub plot which was removed, this I think will be the basis for the new story.

WWRY will continue in other countries, so it's not the end of the show