Alex Gaumond to return to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre
July 4, 2011
Canadian musicals star Alex Gaumond is to return to the cast of We Will Rock You a the Dominion Theatre in London.
Alex Gaumond to rejoin We Will Rock You
Gaumond, who was nominated for a Best Actor in a Musical gong at this year’s Olivier Awards for his performance in Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre, will play Galileo in the show from 8 August 2011.
Current Galileo, Ricardo Afonso, will leave the production to join Summer Strallen, Tom Chambers, Martin Ball, Vivien Parry and Stephen Boswell in the UK tour of the new stage version of Irving Berlin’s Top Hat.
Alex Gaumond is an actor and songwriter who has lived and worked in the UK since 2002. He played Galileo in the 2009 tour of We Will Rock You.
Also rejoining the cast of We Will Rock You will be Mazz Murray, who is the show’s longest serving Killer Queen and will make a final, two week farewell appearance in the role from 8 to 20 August 2011.
The Queen and Ben Elton musical is in its tenth year at the Dominion Theatre, where it holds the record for the longest-ever running show.
LINKS
Book tickets to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in London
Alex Gaumond Joins We Will Rock You
July 4, 2011
OMG! Alex Gaumond to star in We Will Rock You. And Mazz Murray returns to say farewell to Killer Queen role.
Nominated as Best Actor in a Musical in both the Oliver Awards and Whatsonstage.com Awards for his performance as Emmett in the original London cast of Legally Blonde, actor, singer Alex Gaumond is to take over the leading role of Galileo in the Queen & Ben Elton hit West End musical, We Will Rock You. The announcement was made today by show producers Phil McIntyre Entertainment, Tribeca and Queen Theatrical Productions.
Gaumond begins rehearsals with the WWRY cast August 1st to take on the role of Galileo full time at London’s Dominion from August 8th.
Playing Legally Blonde’s shy and charming fellow law student Emmett opposite first Sheridan Smith and then Susan McFadden in the role of Elle, Gaumond proved hugely popular with audiences as well as receiving his two Best Actor nominations. Gaumond ended his eighteen month stay with the production June 18th.
Joining We Will Rock You, Gaumond takes over from WWRY’s current Galileo, Ricardo Afonso, who moves to join the cast of the stage version of Irving Berlin’s Top Hat, due to open in August.
Trading those unflattering Harvard corduroys for jeans and t’s, Gaumond is set to enter the leather clad, guitar-thrashing futurist world of Queen and Ben Elton in which originality and individualism are outlawed and only one man, Galileo, can fulfil a prophecy that will bring about the overthrow of the mighty Killer Queen and enable the return of rock ‘n roll.
It is a return to familiar territory for Gaumond – the dystopian world of Ga Ga girls, Bohemian rebels and Marks & Spencer smoothies; the Canadian actor/singer/songwriter, resident and working in the UK since 2002, gained his first major leading role when he was cast as Galileo in the 2009 UK touring production of We Will Rock You. Gaumond triumphed in the show for seven months before joining Legally Blonde.
Gaumond is presently contracted to play Galileo in the WWRY London Dominion production until end of January 2012.
The show’s co-creator Brian May welcomed Gaumond saying: “Alex is a superb actor, and his interpretation of Galileo on tour in the UK was a huge hit with audiences. We look forward to a new triumph in the Dominion, in WWRY’s 10th year.”
We Will Rock You’s producers today also announced that actress/singer Mazz Murray, the show’s longest serving Killer Queen until her departure on maternity leave last year, is to make a return to the show for a special two week farewell season. Mazz who played Killer Queen between May 2004 – June 2010, will return to say goodbye to her nemesis role August 8 -20, nicely coinciding with Alex Gaumond’s opening in the show. We Will Rock You’s current Killer Queen, Brenda Edwards, is on break during this period, returning to the show immediately after.
We Will Rock You is into the start of its tenth year at the Dominion Theatre where it holds the record for longest-ever running show. The touring production continues to break box office records throughout the UK.
September 5 will see a special performance of We Will Rock You at the Dominion to mark the 65th birthday of former Queen front man Freddie Mercury whose statue towers above the theatre entrance. Proceeds of this special performance will be directed through the Freddie For A Day campaign to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, the charity set up in Freddie’s name to fight HIV AIDS worldwide. See: www.freddieforaday.com
We Will Rock You is presented by Phil McIntyre Entertainment, Queen Theatrical Productions and Tribeca Theatrical Productions. Book and direction by Ben Elton. Music supervisors Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Release issued by PR Contact
LINKS
Book tickets to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in London
West End Live 2011: Mamma Mia!, Million Dollar Quartet, Shrek The Musical and We Will Rock You
June 26, 2011
West End Live 2011 photos the casts of Mamma Mia!, Million Dollar Quartet, Shrek The Musical and We Will Rock You
LINKS
Book tickets to Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre
Book tickets to Million Dollar Quartet at the Noel Coward Theatre
Book tickets to Shrek The Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Book tickets to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre
View West End Live photos of Rock of Ages and Betty Blue Eyes
View West End Live photos of The Wizard of Oz and Crazy For You
View West End Live photos of Ghost The Musical, Wicked and Jersey Boys
View West End Live photos of Legally Blonde and Lend Me A Tenor
View West End Live photos of Billy Elliot and Love Never Dies
View West End Live photos of Chicago, The Lion King, Priscilla Queen of the Desert
We Will Rock You Celebrates 9th Anniversary: Storms Towards A Decade In The West End
May 13, 2011
Special (Belated) Celebration Performance Tuesday May 31.
Victorious at the recent Olivier Awards, taking the vote for the nation’s most popular musical – the BBC Radio2 Audience award – Queen and Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You this weekend reaches the ninth anniversary of its West End opening.
The show opened at The Dominion on May 14, 2002, and has continued to pack houses since.
Its triumph at the Oliviers saw the show beating a shortlist including Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys and Les Miserables in the only category decided entirely by members of the public.
But celebrations marking the show’s move into its decade year are having to be delayed two weeks – while show co-creator Brian May completes his Anthems tour of the United Kingdom with singer Kerry Ellis. Ellis created a starring role in the original cast of We Will Rock You, nine years ago, and May has worked with her since then, producing and writing her debut Anthems album.
Instead, May will roll into town Monday May 31 to join fellow Queen band member Roger Taylor on stage at the Dominion for a belated ninth anniversary celebration. Already warmed up from his tour, May is promising to tune up for a special guest appearance on stage that night.
May and Taylor and co-creator Ben Elton have further reason to celebrate.
Not only is the re-release of “Keep Yourself Alive” currently sitting at number one in the physical music charts, but the recent Theatreland records listing of the top ten longest running West End shows (published by officiallondontheatre.co.uk ) places We Will Rock You at No.9. In a list which is headed by The Mousetrap (58 years), Les Miserables (25 years) and Phantom of the Opera (24 years), We Will Rock You is the only show from the year in which it opened which continues to run in the West End – and in the same theatre that it was born.
Entering its tenth year this weekend, May 14, We Will Rock You is presently booking through to October 22.
The current Dominion cast of We Will Rock You includes former Coronation Street star Kevin Kennedy in the role of Pop, X Factor finalist Brenda Edwards as the Killer Queen and Ricardo Afonso and Sarah French in the roles of the rock rebels set to change the world, Galileo and Scaramouche.
In addition to various productions on foreign soil, a further British production of the show is now in its second record-breaking year touring the UK.
WWRY is a Phil McIntyre, Tribeca Theatrical Productions and Queen Theatrical Productions presentation. Book and direction by Ben Elton. Music by Queen. Music Supervision by Brian May and Roger Taylor. Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London, W.1. Presently booking until October 22, 2011.
Release issued by: Phil Symes PR
LINKS
Olivier Awards: National, Legally Blonde
March 14, 2011
In a star-studded awards ceremony last night, Sunday 13 March, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, the Society of London Theatre held their 35th annual theatre awards ceremony.
Best actress in a musical winner Sheridan Smith
Hosted by musicals star Michael Ball and actress Imelda Staunton, the awards celebrate the best of the year’s London theatre.
Big winners last night included the National Theatre, which swept up seven awards for two of its productions: Thea Sharrock’s revival of Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance, which won awards including best revival, best actress for Nancy Carroll and best actor in a supporting role for Adrian Scarborough; and its production of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard, including best director for Howard Davies and best set design for Bunny Christie.
In other subsidised venues the Royal Court picked up three awards, including best new play for Bruce Norris’s comedy Clybourne Park, which is now playing at the Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End, and two awards for the Donmar Warehouse, including David Thaxton picking up best actor in a musical for Passion.
Roger Allam won best actor for his performance as Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, beating stiff competition from Rory Kinnear, Derek Jacobi, David Suchet and Mark Rylance.
The Olivier Awards were held at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane
The most successful musical of the night was Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre, which picked up three major awards: best new musical, best actress in a musical for Sheridan Smith and best performance in a supporting role in a Musical for Jill Halfpenny.
Other musicals rewarded at the event included We Will Rock You, which won the Olivier Audience Award voted for by members of the theatregoing public, and the Open Air Theatre’s summer production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
Stephen Sondheim was presented with an Olivier Special Award for his enormous contribution to theatre, with the award presented by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and legendary actress Angela Lansbury.
Big shows to miss out on awards this year included Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, which failed to pick up any awards despite seven nominations, and End of the Rainbow at the Trafalgar Studios, which was nominated for four awards including best actress for Tracie Bennett in her performance as Judy Garland.
Thea Sharrock picks up the Best Revival award for her production of After the Dance at the National Theatre
Notable performances during the ceremony included a star turn by legendary American singer Barry Manilow, who also sang a duet with Wicked and Oliver! star Kerry Ellis; current and former stars of The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies – Ramin Karimloo, John Owen-Jones and Sierra Boggess; Emma Williams and Michael Xavier singing Everything We Know from Love Story; Alfie Boe, who is soon to star in Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre, singing Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific; Susan McFadden and the current cast of Legally Blonde; and Adrian Lester paying tribute to Stephen Sondheim by singing Being Alive from Company, along with Angela Lansbury singing a moving rendition of Liaisons from A Little Night Music and 400 students from national drama schools singing Our Time from Merrily We Roll Along.
LISTEN & WATCH AGAIN
BBC iPlayer – Radio 2 coverage
LINKS
Olivier Awards – list of winners
Olivier Awards – Binkie Blog’s Picks and Pans
We Will Rock You ticket offer – Save £24
March 14, 2011
We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in London
Valid Monday to Friday evenings
The Audience Award at this year’s Olivier Awards 2011 has been won by acclaimed rock musical We Will Rock You.
Voted for by members of the theatregoing public, this prestigious award recognises the incredible impact that We Will Rock You has had on the West End since it opened in 2002 at the Dominion Theatre in London.
With standing ovations every night, this spectacular show combines the very best music from legendary band Queen with a brilliant script by Ben Elton. Seen by over 5 million people, the show includes 32 of Queen’s classic hits including Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, and more.
Westendtheatre.com readers can now enjoy a special celebratory £24 off top price tickets to see the show. Also great We Will Rock You theatre and dinner deals are available.
Olivier Awards: Last Chance to Vote
March 9, 2011
Today is the last chance for theatregoers to vote for their favourite West End shows and choose a winner for this year’s Olivier Audience Award.
Recent press advertising for We Will Rock You
Voting ends just before midnight tonight, Wednesday 9 March 2011.
The short list of shows are Billy Elliot the Musical, Jersey Boy, Les Misérables and We Will Rock You. They received more votes than the 14 other eligible shows in the Audience Award category, and were voted for by members of the theatregoing public.
The winner will be announced at the Olivier Awards at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Sunday 13 March.
All four musicals have been promoting their nominations, with shows such as Jersey Boys and We Will Rock You taking out press advertising to canvas theatregoer’s votes.
LINKS
Olivier Audience Award short list announced
February 27, 2011
The short list for this year’s Olivier Audience Award was announced today by Elaine Paige on her BBC Radio 2 show.
Gareth Gates in Les Miserables - on the short list for the Olivier Audience Award
The short list of shows are Billy Elliot the Musical, Jersey Boy, Les Misérables and We Will Rock You. They received more votes than the 14 other eligible shows in the Audience Award category, and were voted for by members of the theatregoing public.
Voting has now reopened to choose the winner, until 9 March 2011. The winner will be announced at the Olivier Awards at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Sunday 13 March.
Queen musical We Will Rock You and Billy Elliot both made it on to the short list last year but were beaten by Wicked as the Audience Award winner 2010. Wicked was not included in the awards line-up this year. The nomination of Les Misérables follows the show’s recent win at the Whatsonstage Awards for its 25th anniversary O2 concert and UK touring production. Jersey Boys is the biographical musical telling the story and featuring the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, which opened at the Prince Edward theatre in 2008.
Also on Elaine Paige’s show this Sunday, a new song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the new London Palladium production of The Wizard of Oz was given its world premiere. Red Shoes Blues was sung by Hannah Waddingham, who plays the Wicked Witch of the West in the show alongside Danielle Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as the Wizard.
LINKS
LISTEN: Red Shoes Blues from The Wizard of Oz, sung by Hannah Waddingham
LISTEN: Elaine Paige announces the Olivier Audience Award short list
Royal Mail release Musicals Stamps
February 24, 2011
The Royal Mail is celebrating seven decades of UK stage musicals with a set of stamps, issued today.
Royal Mail Musicals Stamps set
Eight shows are featured: Queen’s We Will Rock You, West End classic Oliver!, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Me and My Girl – first produced in 1937, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Elton John’s Billy Elliot, and (slightly bizarrely) Return to the Forbidden Planet.
Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen helped launch the stamps at the Dominion Theatre today, and said: “We’re thrilled that We Will Rock You has been immortalised on a Royal Mail stamp. The image on the stamp takes us back to when we were touring as Queen and embodies the rock and roll music that we wanted to celebrate in We Will Rock You the musical.”
We know they can’t include everything but they have left out some biggies: Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn’t feature, which is odd given that he is probably Britain’s most successful living musicals composer. And the world’s longest running musical, Les Miserables, is strangely absent (yes, it was written by two French men, but the production is most definitely British). And no Leslie Bricusse, Noel Coward, Ivor Novello or Sandy Wilson work?
Click here to see the full set of Musicals stamps
LINKS
VIDEO: We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre
November 2, 2010
London’s long-running rock musical featuring the songs of legendary band Queen and a book by Ben Elton.
Book tickets to We Will Rock You
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VIDEO
We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre
LINKS
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