Youth theatre rock and roar into holiday shows
Elias Gonzales as Buddy (pictured centre) with other cast members in ‘We Will Rock You’. Photo: Teri Williams.
The Nelson Youth Theatre Company is ready to roar and rock Nelson’s socks off these school holidays with two shows at the Theatre Royal.
The Nelson premiere of ‘We Will Rock You’ kicked off on Wednesday night for a run of 10 shows over 10 nights, while ‘The Lion King Jr’ takes the stage from Sunday for eight afternoon shows and one evening show, over a week.
‘We Will Rock You’ is based on the songs of Queen and takes place in a future age, on a planet once called Earth.
Director Richard Carruthers describes the musical as “a rock concert with a damn good story tied in as well”.
“The music of Queen is killer; this show is going to rock.”
A live band will bring the show to life - this is something that the theatre company hasn’t used for a number of years.
“The live band is a key feature of the show - it turns the show on its head as it becomes a rock show.”
Featuring a cast of 31 youths, aged between 12 and 20 years old, he says the “fantastically” written script by Ben Elton is full of lots of “tongue in cheek and clever jokes”.
Rock musicians will then be replaced by jungle animals when ‘The Lion King Jr’ takes the stage.
Richard says the captivating 70-minute musical involves a whopping cast of 150 youth, with 90 taking the stage for each performance. Sixty of the cast members are under eight years old.
“We’ve got all these fabulous animals… life-sized elephants, rhinos and giraffes, and amazing lion masks… it will deliver and we’re heading towards a sellout.”
Richard says the popularity of youth theatre hasn’t slowed down, with lots of keen young actors keen to get a taste of the big stage.
“Every week we’ve got another couple of kids wanting to do it… we keep rolling with it and make it work.”
‘We Will Rock You’ is on at the Theatre Royal from 10 - 19 April while ‘The Lion King Jr’ takes the stage from 14 - 20 April. Go here for show times and tickets.