‘Queen Extravaganza’ Makes U.S. Debut in Detroit

Roger Taylor’s vision has come to life as the ‘Queen Extravaganza’ opened Thursday night (May 31) at Detroit’s Fox Theater. The drummer set out last year to put together a production of musicians that could pull off the Queen catalog with the idea that it would keep the aging band’s legacy alive for future generations.

The production benefited from three shows in Canada before heading south of the border, and it went off well. Billboard reports that a nine-member collective took the stage for a full-on 32-song performance that’s actually broken down into two acts. By employing multiple musicians, especially on vocals, the group is able to come fairly close to replicating the range that the late Freddie Mercury provided as well as the theatrical and choral elements the group never truly attempted live.

The one known name from the production is veteran vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, who has fronted Journey and Yngwie Malmsteen’s band. He took on such grittier tracks as ‘Tie Your Mother Down,’ ‘Dragon Attack,’ and ‘Stone Cold Crazy.’ Fellow vocalists Yvan Pedneault and Marc Martel provided vocal leads on the more melodic tracks, and female vocalist Jennifer Espinoza took on ‘March of the Black Queen,’ ‘You’re My Best Friend,’ and ‘Who Wants to Live Forever.’

The show not only had two acts, but there was an encore featuring the forever-tied tracks ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are the Champions.’ The ‘Queen Extravaganza’ currently has shows booked into early July.

The ‘Queen Extravaganza’ Set List:

Act 1
1. ‘We Will Rock You’
2. ‘Tie Your Mother Down’
3. ‘Now I’m Here’
4. ‘Killer Queen’
5. ‘Love of My Life’
6. ‘I Want It All’
7. ‘Bicycle Race’
8. ‘I Want to Break Free’
9. ‘March of the Black Queen’
10. ‘Dragon Attack’
11. ‘You Take My Breath Away’
12. ‘Save Me’
13. ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’
14. ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’
15. ‘I’m in Love With My Car’
16. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Act 2
1. ‘One Vision’
2. ‘A Kind of Magic’
3. ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’
4. ‘Under Pressure’
5. ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’
6. ‘Another One Bites the Dust’
7. ‘You’re My Best Friend’
8. ‘In the Lap of the Gods’
9. ‘Stone Cold Crazy’
10. ‘The Show Must Go On’
11. ‘Radio GaGa’
12. ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’
13. ‘Somebody to Love’
Encore
1. ‘We Will Rock You’
2. ‘We Are the Champions’