From the NME.
“The Age of the Samurai is about to begin…”
A modern theatre production inspired by the Queen album ‘A Night At The Opera’ will open in Japan next month with the band’s blessing.
Titled Q: A Night At The Kabuki, the show will feature all songs from the 1975 rock opus, and will be staged in Tokyo, Osaka and Kitakyushu.
The play is led by writer/director Hideki Noda of independent theatre company NODA•MAP. As Noda tells it, someone close to the band came to him with the idea to turn ‘A Night At The Opera’ into a play, two years before the success of the blockbuster Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
“Even though I was only half-convinced, I set about half-naked and sweating all over doing numerous workshops trying to put into words the inspiration I got from ‘A Night At The Opera’,” Noda said in a statement. “I then conveyed my ideas to that someone close to the band, and what do you know! I received a reply from Queen saying it was OK to go forward with the play.”
In a statement, Queen’s Brian May said he was “thrilled and honoured” to have his music soundtrack the production. “How wonderful to be a part of Japanese culture after all these years,” May said, “with what promises to be a new chapter in theatre history in this first year of the new Reiwa era.”
Set in medieval Japan, the show puts its own spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet by re-imagining the tragedy’s ending: what would have happened if the star-crossed lovers had survived? Noda describes the play as “pretty unconventional in a weird kabuki way”.
Q: A Night At The Kabuki will premiere at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre on October 8. It will also be staged at the Shin Kabuki-za Theater in Osaka and the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center in Kitakyushu, from October 19 to 27 and October 31 to November 4 respectively.
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- Queen - Jazz - 1st + Poster - VG - UK - vinyl LP - £40.00, $53.20, €46.80 (New Item) (arrived 19-Apr-2025 16:00)on April 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
QUEEN Jazz (1978 UK first press 13-track LP, including the singles Bicycle Race, Fat Bottomed Girls & Don't Stop Me Now, housed in the original embossed gatefold sleeve with round-cornered laminated inner & loose 'nude bicycle race' fold-out poster. The sleeve [VG] shows some light edgewear and scuff marks; the inner has a little minor creasing; the poster, although detached, shows no signs of being displayed. The vinyl is superb with very little sign of play EMA788)
- Queen - A Day At The Races - 1st - VG/EX - UK - vinyl LP - £60.00, $79.80, €70.20 (New Item) (arrived 17-Apr-2025 08:34)on April 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
QUEEN A Day At The Races (Rare 1976 UK first press 10-track LP with 1U/1U matrices, their fifth studio album including Tie Your Mother Down, Somebody To Love & Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, gatefold picture sleeve with picture inner. The sleeve shows obvious scuffs, mainly to the reverse, whilst the vinyl remains in Excellent condition with a few light hairlines, not affecting play. A respectable copy of this in demand Queen original EMTC104)
- Queen - The Game - 1st - EX - UK - vinyl LP - £20.00, $26.60, €23.40 (New Item) (arrived 10-Apr-2025 16:00)on April 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
QUEEN The Game (1980 UK first press 10-track LP, including the hit singles Another One Bites The & Dust Crazy Little Thing Called Love, complete with illustrated lyric inner, silver metallicised picture sleeve. The sleeve shows some signs of wearwith a small tear to the opening edge, whilst the vinyl is Excellent with minor signs of play. This is a difficult sleeve to photograph/scan & always looks much worse in the images than it actually is, so don't panic! EMA795)
- Queen - Don't Stop Me Now + Sleeve - UK - 7" vinyl - £18.00, $23.94, €21.06 (New Item) (arrived 15-Apr-2025 15:56)on April 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
QUEEN Don't Stop Me Now (1978 UK 7" vinyl single with an intact four prong centre, also including In Only Seven Days. The card picture sleeve shows a little ringwear and edgewear. Whilst the vinyl remains in excellent condition EMI2910)
- Queen - A Night At The Opera - 1st - VG - UK - vinyl LP - £50.00, $66.50, €58.50 (New Item) (arrived 16-Apr-2025 08:38)on April 20, 2025 at 10:02 am
QUEEN A Night At The Opera (Classic 1975 UK first press 12-track vinyl LP with picture labels & 'BLAIRS' etched into the run-off area, their fourth studio album including the classic hit Bohemian Rhapsody, embossed gatefold picture sleeve with picture inner. The sleeve shows some obvious discolouring and foxing. The inner shows a little seam wear, whilst the vinyl shows a few light signs of wear and play EMTC103) #Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time
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