It's A Kind of Magic - Festival Theatre21 October 2007 - 6:00pm
What do you get when you get 4 guys dressed to look and play instruments like one of the world’s best rock bands?
You get a damn good tribute show that is what you get!
Last night, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see “It’s a kind of Magic” which is a tribute to the band that was QUEEN. Ever since seeing the fantastic show “We Will Rock You” at Star City in Sydney, I have been a major Queen fan. I have all the albums (including ‘We Will Rock You’ sound track), and relish in the geniuses that was Freddy Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
The first thing that I am going to say is that it is weird to see a ‘Rock’ performance at the Festival Theatre, because well firstly from my experiences people usually prefer to sit and bop in this theatre, they don’t get off their butts, and last night was no exception. Craig Pesco who did a wonderful performance as Freddy Mercury did his best to continually try to get the audience to their feet, but it seemed everyone that sat central to the stage did not want to move, I don’t know why, even the people in the disabled seats behind me made more of an effort - and they had an excuse. Towards the end of the show most of the patrons got up and danced and clapped, but there was still a heap of people not budging from their seats. Is this an Adelaide thing??? Are we that conservative here, because I honestly have no idea how you can go to a Queen show and not dance!
Unfortunately I was not old enough and probably on the wrong continent to ever have got the opportunity see QUEEN live, but from the footage and film clips that I have seen, I really feel that this tribute performance was almost near enough to the real thing. They performed all of the classics such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’, ‘We Are the Champions’, and my personal favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Craig Pesco even did Freddy to a tee and put on the maid out fit to do a rendition of ‘I Want To Break Free’, he had the leather pants, the feather duster to thrust into and the fake boobs to flash at the audience – (may I say a very perky set as well!!!)
The cast consisted of Craig Pesco who was obviously the star as Freddy Mercury, (and was brilliant might I add), but could not have pulled off the performance without the support from the other members who where:
‘Travis Hair’ as Brian May – who looked the part and played the guitar with precision
‘Brett Milliken’ as Roger Taylor – who apart from a really bad blonde wig, did an amazing solo drum performance, and almost got a full standing ovation from the audience on his own!
‘Mitch Cairns’ as John Deacon – who played Bass in a way that John Deacon himself would have been proud.
Apart from the lack of support from the audience the only thing that I thought the show lacked was perhaps a little more footage to celebrate Queen. There was some footage of Freddy Mercury, but maybe leading in from the interval some footage of the entire band doing shows
such as Live 8, interviews etc. would have been an added bonus. It is one thing to sing their songs in tribute, but I would have been nice to celebrate their lives and their achievements a little more.
Apparently next week these guys are doing an encore performance again at the Festival Theatre, and I would urge any Queen fan to get a ticket and go, you will not be disappointed. All of the seating on the plan for this performance would be great, so if the only tickets you can get is up in the bleachers don’t worry – you will still enjoy this show!
You get a damn good tribute show that is what you get!
Last night, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see “It’s a kind of Magic” which is a tribute to the band that was QUEEN. Ever since seeing the fantastic show “We Will Rock You” at Star City in Sydney, I have been a major Queen fan. I have all the albums (including ‘We Will Rock You’ sound track), and relish in the geniuses that was Freddy Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
The first thing that I am going to say is that it is weird to see a ‘Rock’ performance at the Festival Theatre, because well firstly from my experiences people usually prefer to sit and bop in this theatre, they don’t get off their butts, and last night was no exception. Craig Pesco who did a wonderful performance as Freddy Mercury did his best to continually try to get the audience to their feet, but it seemed everyone that sat central to the stage did not want to move, I don’t know why, even the people in the disabled seats behind me made more of an effort - and they had an excuse. Towards the end of the show most of the patrons got up and danced and clapped, but there was still a heap of people not budging from their seats. Is this an Adelaide thing??? Are we that conservative here, because I honestly have no idea how you can go to a Queen show and not dance!
Unfortunately I was not old enough and probably on the wrong continent to ever have got the opportunity see QUEEN live, but from the footage and film clips that I have seen, I really feel that this tribute performance was almost near enough to the real thing. They performed all of the classics such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’, ‘We Are the Champions’, and my personal favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Craig Pesco even did Freddy to a tee and put on the maid out fit to do a rendition of ‘I Want To Break Free’, he had the leather pants, the feather duster to thrust into and the fake boobs to flash at the audience – (may I say a very perky set as well!!!)
The cast consisted of Craig Pesco who was obviously the star as Freddy Mercury, (and was brilliant might I add), but could not have pulled off the performance without the support from the other members who where:
‘Travis Hair’ as Brian May – who looked the part and played the guitar with precision
‘Brett Milliken’ as Roger Taylor – who apart from a really bad blonde wig, did an amazing solo drum performance, and almost got a full standing ovation from the audience on his own!
‘Mitch Cairns’ as John Deacon – who played Bass in a way that John Deacon himself would have been proud.
Apart from the lack of support from the audience the only thing that I thought the show lacked was perhaps a little more footage to celebrate Queen. There was some footage of Freddy Mercury, but maybe leading in from the interval some footage of the entire band doing shows
such as Live 8, interviews etc. would have been an added bonus. It is one thing to sing their songs in tribute, but I would have been nice to celebrate their lives and their achievements a little more.Apparently next week these guys are doing an encore performance again at the Festival Theatre, and I would urge any Queen fan to get a ticket and go, you will not be disappointed. All of the seating on the plan for this performance would be great, so if the only tickets you can get is up in the bleachers don’t worry – you will still enjoy this show!
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For more information about this show check out the official website http://queen.itsakindamagic.com/ and tickets can be brought through BASS.
x
1 comment:
I totally agree with you, Adelaide people are so frustrating! I also went to the tribute show, and you must have been the only other person dancing. A rock concert is suppose to be all about getting up and shaking your groove thang.
The show really was great however. I have been a Queen gan for many years and really enjoyed the rendition that they performed
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