“Schools Will Rock You” performed at Gesamtschule Guxhagen. 

Queen and Ben Elton’s stunning musical has finally touched Germany at a very crucial spot: Guxhagen, a village of 2000 souls situated right in the heart of Germany became the Champion’s Olymp in June 2009. The year before, Roland Pflueger, head of music department at Guxhagen Comprehensive, had successfully applied for a licence, and together with his collegue Max Alter, who took the director’s part, and their ensemble of 56 students aged 13 to 16, who had signed in for the drama club without knowing what they would be up to, rehearsed for 8 months before they put on stage an abridged and adapted version of “We Will Rock You”, with still more than two hours length, and containing 20 of Queen’s hits. 30some parents turned the school cafeteria into a future world in order to save the world again and again - or rather: for a number of 10 performances.

Teachers Max and Roland had been successful before with productions of Alan Menken’s “Little Shop of Horrors” and several self-written musicals. “SWRY certainly was the one the kids liked best” says Roland, proud of his little orchestra of 13, “though it was hard work to rearrange the music, reducing the score so that the youngsters were able to cope with the material, and on the other hand trying to preserve the typical sound and feeling of Queen’s music. Who wants to live forever still gave me shivers every time we played it.” Max resumes: “You couldn’t expect the excellence of a professional cast, not even that of a grammar school with students aged 16 to 18, but you could experience authentic youths, with an unspoiled charm and an enthusiasm mirroring pure love of life. That’s worth all the pain.” The audience seemed to agree, for when after each performance the students appealed to donate towards the MPT, the boxes filled. “It’s the least thing to do to contribute whatever overspill we have”, adds Peggi, another Queen fan and the club’s administration manager (we might as well say mother), “though what Queen have given us (meaning: when we were young), can never be balanced with money.”

Roland Pflueger