Touring the United States and Canada with “We Will Rock You: The Queen Musical” has been “A Kind of Magic” for Lethbridge born musician/ actor Kyle Gruninger, who plays the villain Khashoggi .
We Will Rock You: The Queen musical is at the Enmax Centre, Sunday, Jan.19.
Gruninger is excited about the show.
“ Most of the shows have been sold out. It’s been great. You have little kids who are about 10 -years excited wearing Queen shirts and raising their hands they’re next to their parents who are doing the same thing,” Gruninger enthused from Vancouver.
“ A lot of people really have no idea what to expect. People will ask me ‘who’s playing Freddie Mercury,” he said, adding that is tough to answer as We Will Rock You isn’t a Queen tribute show.
“ It’s a spectacle with non-stop action and great costumes and choreography. It takes place in a dystopian world, where there is no music. Everything is digital. Everything is owned by Global Soft Corporation. It’s strange and exciting how true it has become because it was originally written in 2003 and there was no iPhone,” he said, adding his character Khashoggi and his boss the Killer Queen fight the Bohemians.
“We Will Rock You tells the story of a globalized future without musical instruments. A handful of rock rebels, the Bohemians, fight against the all-powerful Globalsoft company and its boss, the Killer Queen; they fight for freedom, individuality and the rebirth of the age of rock. Scaramouche and Galileo, two young outsiders, cannot come to terms with the bleak conformist reality. They join the Bohemians and embark on the search to find the unlimited power of freedom, love and Rock,” according to the We Will Rock You: The Queen musical website.
Gruninger has enjoyed seeing a lot of new places.
“ We’ve got two 12 person busses and two semis. We usually leave for the next date at 1 a.m. But we have our days to look around and the show ends around 10, so we always try to find a pub or some live music after,” he enthused.
He is enjoying playing the dialogue heavy character of Khashoggi. But he also gets to sing a couple of songs including “Seven Seas Of Rhye.”
“I love singing my duet of ‘It’s a Kind of Magic,’ with the Killer Queen. And I love getting to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody’ with everyone at the end of the show,” he continued.
“ There is a lot of dialogue. I haven’t done anything like it for years. I’m used to doing more slapstick comedy. But the character of Khashoggi does lend itself to some of that. But it’s not like doing silly walks with Jeff Carlson,” he chuckled, remembering some of his early days working with Lethbridge’s New West Theatre.
He is excited to perform at the Enmax Centre.
“It is always been my dream to play the local stadium. So I’m excited to do it this way and perform for all of the people I’ve learned from,” he said, adding he is excited to be back in Vancouver.
“ I grew up here from 2006 to 2015, so it is great to be back to visit friends here on a day off here,” he said, adding he didn’t get a chance to work with his band Incura while he was there.
“My drummer lives in Texas now. But they’re all coming to the show,” tonight,” he continued adding he completed the three song EP he was working on when he was cast.
“ It will be for sale at the show. There]s about 33 shows left. When it’s done I’ll record another three songs, he said.
“ Though I’d like to keep doing this show because it’s a different show every night. It‘s live theatre in a different venue and with a different audience,” he said.
We Will Rock You is at the Enmax Centre at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $84.50-$105.50
L.A. Beat is giving away a meet and greet and two tickets to the show. Just be the first person to e-mail
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with the name of Kyle Gruninger’s character in the show. Congratulations to Christine Chris Jensen-Ross for being the first to answer the question— what is Kyle Gruninger’s character— Khashoggi.
