Development
According to Brian May, Queen's manager Jim Beach had spoken with the band about creating a jukebox musical with Queen's songs since the mid-1990s. Initially, the intent was to create a biographical story of Freddie Mercury. About this time, Robert De Niro's production company Tribeca expressed interest in a Queen musical, but it found the original idea difficult to work with.
In the year 2000, Ben Elton was approached to start talks with May and Taylor on the project. Unfortunately this just coincided with a headline that The Times Newspaper called "Is Elton going to sell out?". Elton suggested taking the musical down a different path than initially imagined, creating an original story that would capture the spirit of much of their music. He worked closely with May and Taylor to incorporate Queen's songs into the story. Elton has also stated that he was in part inspired by the computer-controlled dystopia of the science-fiction film The Matrix. The script was eventually completed midway through 2001. Before working on We Will Rock You, neither May nor Taylor liked the musical genre.
The original London production began previews on 26 April 2002 and opened on 14 May 2002 at the Dominion Theatre. The show is currently still playing there, and on 24 May 2012 celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Read more about this topic: We Will Rock You (musical)
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