KEY POINTS:
There's one thing the creators of rock'n'roll musical We Will Rock You agree on - it's not the story of Queen, or the band's late-great singer, Freddie Mercury.
That's right, people, this is a musical for you.
"Queen isn't about Freddie because there's four of them and, like every band with a great body of work, everyone's experiences of Queen are different," says comedian and writer Ben Elton, who wrote the story and script for We Will Rock You.
"When I listen to the Beatles I don't think, 'Oh, Paul, John ... ' It's my music, and the same goes for Queen. It belongs to all of us because they've been in our lives for so long."
It's been 36 years since Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass player John Deacon formed the band that would go on to write hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust, and I Want To Break Free.
And, after 300 million album sales and the death of Mercury (who is memorialised many times during the show) in 1991 of Aids, We Will Rock You is the best place to hear Queen songs again, though May and Taylor have recently kick-started Queen again with singer Paul Rodgers replacing Mercury.
The show starts in New Zealand on October 26 with a six-week season and features in lead roles New Zealand singer Annie Crummer, as the Killer Queen, and Australian Miguel "Mig" Ayeesha, who was a finalist in Rock Star INXS, as Galileo.
In London's West End, We Will Rock You is this week celebrating it's fifth anniversary since debuting at the Dominion Theatre in Tottenham Court Rd, one of the area's largest theatres, with more than 2000 seats.
It's the longest-running show at this grand, grungy old theatre, which suits May's loud searing guitar licks.
The show is based in a futuristic world where live music is banned and guitar is a dirty word. But, rebellion is brewing and let's just say, the kids wanna rock.
Since tonight's show is a special occasion, May and Taylor play in the encore - which includes Bohemian Rhapsody and a rousing version of The Show Must Go On - with May rising spectacularly out of the stage in a puff of smoke.
"Talk to Roger, and he will say it's all about rock'n'roll," says May.
"Yes, it is. But it's also all about theatre and there's somewhere in the middle that we've been able to find."
However, if the Queen drummer and songwriter had his way he wouldn't call it a musical at all. Musicals make him sick.
"I loathe the genre," smiles Taylor. "When I was a kid I used to almost throw up, and I think I actually did throw up at The Sound of Music," he laughs.
Basically, he hates the way musicals "irrationally" burst into song so both he and May have made sure the songs and script meld seamlessly into one another.
And besides, this is rock'n'roll.
As the mantra of the Bohemians - the rock'n'roll rebels - goes: "It's sex. It's style. It's rebellion. It's freedom."
And Freddie wouldn't have it any other way.
We Will Rock You opens at the Civic on October 26. Tickets on sale through Ticketek from May 28.
