We Will Rock You – The Hammond

Zodiac Theatre Group return to the Hammond School this week and are transporting us to the iPlanet where Globalsoft have taken over, banning real music and instruments and turning everything computer generated, from music to the people who live there, dressing the same, listening to the same computer generated music. The Killer Queen is ruling the iPlanet, with the help of her evil assistant, commander Khashoggi. But the bohemians know that Rock n roll is still alive somewhere on the iPlanet, so when they come across the dreamer, Galileo, they do all they can to help him to find the hidden musical instruments hidden in the place of hidden rock.

The stage is quite bare, with computer monitors, keyboards and other old electronics at the front either side of the stage, a rostra that runs across the back and the centre of the stage and videos being projected across the back wall. The band are on stage, across the back between the rostra and the projected wall. This is where I felt a disjoint in the production as there was no set to speak of so the projected images on the back wall created the ‘set’ and although the images and videos are excellent quality and help bring you in to the world, the fact the band were between them and the ‘stage’ and cast, I personally felt it lost the impact it needed to bring the two worlds together.

Jack Parry delivers fantastic vocals as Galileo, belting out some powerful songs and I loved his softer vocals during Who Wants To Live Forever. Kirstie Warren is a confident, independent Scaramouche, showing us some great dance moves towards the end and some gorgeous tones vocally.

Kat Jae is extremely commanding as Killer Queen with Craig Lee Jones as Khashoggi, giving great rapport.

Sam Eggins shines as Buddy, giving lots of character and delivering a gorgeous These are The Days of our Lives.

The stand out for me came from Anna Shipley as Oz and Chris Barry-Doyle as Brit. Delivering heaps of character, amazing powerful vocals and Shipley gave me goosebumps during No one But You, joined by the whole cast, giving gorgeous backing vocals and simple yet effective movement is beautiful.

The space relied heavily on lighting to create atmosphere and ambience, and Joe Sanderson did a fantastic job with this. Sound by Tom Maurice was fantastic with every person able to be heard all through and the levels were great.

The band led by Craig Price sound amazing and the overall vocals sound great but felt occasionally the join between dialogue and songs were a little slow, with cast waiting before starting to sing, where I would have preferred the dialogue and beginning to sing to be a little more fluid.

Choreography by Joni Rusling was bold and inventive and delivered well for the most although at times it felt a little crowded on stage causing some routines to look a little squashed or not as in sync as you would expect in this computer generated world where everyone is supposed to be perfect and exactly the same.

There are some great ideas that make this production of We Will Rock You different to others I’ve seen before, some heightening the show and some falling a little short but overall it’s a great show with fantastic songs, a talented cast who give their all to deliver an energetic show and the audience loved it, giving a standing ovation at the end.

We Will Rock You is running at the Hammond until Saturday 11^th April with tickets available from www.thezodiac.org/we-will-rock-you-zodiac-hammond-chester/

Reviewer: Damian Riverol

Reviewed: 8^th April 2026

North West End UK Rating: