Rousing songs but threadbare plot as Earth has been conquered, renamed iPlanet and – inexplicably – can only be saved by a band of rock’n’rollers
ome bad news for those fed up with recent speculation over artificial intelligence’s future takeover of planet Earth: the return of this, turbo-powered by Queen’s rock anthems and under-powered by Ben Elton’s book, dramatises the same moral panic.
Earth has been conquered and renamed iPlanet. Only a group of badly dressed rock’n’rollers called the Bohemians can save it from the clutches of KillerThey are the baddies in this futuristic panto – there really is an urge to boo and hiss at them.
They plod through a threadbare plot with bursts of spurious song, with leading dialogue such as: “Are you ready to break free?” . We are grateful for the singing though because the Queen songs – from A Kind of Magic to Don’t Stop Me Now – are effectively sung on the whole.Elton, directing, also makes his stage acting debut as the Rebel Leader, an old hippy previously known as Pop and played by Nigel Planer, and seems as if he has wandered into a musical to perform his standup material.
It is still plain to see why the show endured for its original 12-year run at the Dominion: the songs transcend their context and keep their rousing, big stadium sound. It is moving when Brian May appears on stage to play his guitar to Bohemian Rhapsody at the end, too, but the journey here has been quite a trudge.
In a preamble, Elton’s Rebel Leader talks of less than flattering reviews of the original production. In this critic’s view, it’s a case of going back to that future for iPlanet’s shaggy bohemians.
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