Bohemian Rhapsody

The Opera House, Manchester

REVIEWING any production that makes its crust from performing Queen songs is a production met with slight intrepidation.

How can anyone, aside from the mighty Queen themselves, emulate such a forceful stage presence that can get away with mixing rock with opera and first class harmonies?

But despite this thought probably being in the minds of many of their first-time audience members, from the start Bohemian Rhapsody managed to somehow use this to their advantage and pull the rug from under the feet of the watchful crowd with their energetic dance routines and strong vocals.

Kicking off with One Vision, they set the precedence for the whole show – a glittering, sexy set with a band to match.

Hammer to Fall, performed by Amy Diamond - a finalist on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV show Over The Rainbow - was vocally sound.

She made it her own with the help of some impressive tail feathers to match the flamboyance of the band they are emulating.

I Want To Break Free made the audience forget themselves and start belting it out like it was a sing-a-long.

The attire of singer Giovanni Spano was apt for the song – it left little to the imagination and brought whoops of excitement from quite a few middle-aged women who obviously like their men in suspenders.

Other notable numbers were Crazy Little Thing Called Love, its groove making even the most laid back members of the audience swing from side to side, Barcelona, which showed off the range of vocal talent, and Somebody to Love, whose harmonies were pitch perfect.

The group, made up of seven singers including headliner Nathan James, six dancers and five musicians, powerfully and melodically raunched their way through a two-hour set of all the Queen classics – but on reflection it makes you realise just how much of a unique band Queen were, creating such a strong sound with only four members.

Nathan James really was the star of the show, displaying both rock and operatic prowess in a voice once described by Simon Cowell as “a male Joss Stone”.

But what does he know? On the basis of tonight’s show alone, James is already streets ahead of her.

The finale, the song of the band’s name and Queen’s most well known offering, was another big surprise thanks to the talents of the two guitarists whose instruments sang as beautifully as the vocalists.

The show itself was not only well sung and played, but it was entertaining too.

You have to see the show not as a wannabe Queen act – but as a sincere tribute to them. Which it was.