'We Will Rock You' Worldwide

 
We Will Rock You has been staged in local productions in over 20 countries around the world. Across the world the show has been seen by 16 million people.

In August, 2003 Australia became the first country outside the UK to produce a local version of We Will Rock You. This was followed by productions in Spain (October 2003), Las Vegas (September 2004), and Moscow, Russia (October 2004).

In Germany, the show opened at Cologne’s Musical Dome on December 12, 2004. At the time, German producer Michael Brenner said he was planning for a one-year run. In fact, the show continued to run in Cologne for almost four years, until September 30, 2008, having played to an audience of over 1.5 million. But this was not a closing of the show, but instead the opportunity to move the show to Stuttgart, where it opened in November of that year. After increasing its total Germany audience to 3 million during the Stuttgart run, the production subsequently transferred to Berlin to play at the city’s Theater des Westens in October 2010. There it continued to play for another year, until October 21, 2011. The show has recently reopened in German in Essen. 

After previews began in Toronto on March 15, 2007, the Canadian production of We Will Rock You officially opened at Toronto’s Canon Theatre on April 10, 2007. Originally scheduled to play seven weeks, the production ran at the Canon Theatre for 61 weeks playing to more than 700,000 people. The show then transferred to Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre on July 16, 2008, with its run in the city extended 17 times. It continued to run until June 28, 2009. Between the two theatres We Will Rock You played 788 performances and reached an audience of 1 million. In addition, the production received the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) Dora Mavor Moore Award, celebrating extraordinary Toronto talent in the performing arts, for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

For the non-English speaking version of the Spanish production, audiences saw the full production, including the Queen songbook, performed entirely in Spanish. So, “Another One Bites the Dust” was sung as “El Polvo Tu Morderas”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” became “Algo Loco Es El Amor”, “I Want To Break Free” as “Yo Quiero Salir”, and “Hammer To Fall”, translated to “Ya Se Acabo”. And “Fat Bottomed Girls”? This one appears to have baffled the Spanish translators; it remained…”Fat Bottomed Girls”.

When Ben Elton’s book was fully translated for the Russian production in Moscow in October 2004, the show inexplicably became 1 hour and a half longer. No additional material was added. The Russian premiere of We Will Rock You was also a milestone for Queen, as it became the first time in Russia’s history that Queen music was allowed to be played live.