Queen by Candlelight – London Palladium | Review

Let’s just say I was never bored enough to even think about taking the time and the energy to count the sheer number of candles on stage: all LEDs, in case any readers were wondering what the fire risk assessment had to say about that. Kinda Dusty, the company behind Queen by Candlelight – and a whole load more themed concerts – seemed to spare no expense when it came to taking their show to the London Palladium, ratcheting up their staging, their band and their cast since their last West End outing at the Adelphi Theatre in May 2024.

The concerts began, the gala night audience to mark 50 years of Queen’s hit song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was told, in May 2021, in a church in Manchester (although I looked the location up afterwards, and it transpires it was actually in Salford). Nonetheless, it is where the team got the idea of concerts by candlelight from. A socially distanced audience wearing masks gathered to hear one of the first post-lockdown live concerts in the country. The four soloists who performed then are still with the show – Simon Gordon, Joel Harper-Jackson, Sandra Regan and Rory Taylor. Queen by Candlelight was, they assert, the first rock concert to be held in St Paul’s Cathedral, and the show has been performed internationally, including a sold-out performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in June 2023, and a more recent tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The show’s enduring popularity more or less speaks for itself – and unlike Taylor, I have not seen as many live concert recordings of Queen as it is reasonably possible to see (official or, ahem, otherwise), and given there were some songs in the lineup which I didn’t know the words to at all, I am evidently not a diehard fan. Still, the sheer talent from the cast and musicians in this show made me wonder if the producers should look into releasing a live album. And it would have to be, I think, a live album – a studio recording won’t capture the essence of Queen by Candlelight sufficiently.

There were some playful interactions with the audience, which in one sense was quite an achievement given the rows and rows of candles creating a barrier between cast and audience, and while there might have been a couple too many check-ins to see if we were doing ‘all right’, they never reached the point of irritation. Aside from Taylor’s recollection of watching Queen footage on YouTube, DVD and VHS (Betamax was before his time, apparently), there was a near-total absence of personal backstories on what certain songs meant to a soloist. Particularly after the interval, banger after banger was performed with neither commentary nor introduction. We had met everyone in the first half, so there was little need, if any at all, to reintroduce the same people in the second. It really was, so to speak, a kind of magic, and a rare occasion when there was genuine disappointment when it became clear the evening’s proceedings were about to draw to a close.

With so many songs by so many singers performed to perfection, it is difficult to pick out a standout performance or two. So I’ll pick on a couple of audience members instead – one, in the front stalls, was given the task of adding a key sound effect to ‘Bicycle Race’, and the other provided possibly the kindest heckle I’ve ever heard, telling Rory Taylor it was nice to see him back on stage – in context, he was off-stage for seven songs in a row before a poignant rendering of ‘Love of My Life’. This is the sort of thing you just don’t get sitting at home watching Netflix. An excellent night out, it’s full marks from me for this hugely enjoyable concert.

Featuring a spectacular cast of West End singers and special guests, accompanied by an epic live 14-piece rock band, this special one-off Gala Performance included some of the most iconic songs of all time, including ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ and many more!

Vocalists: Simon Gordon, Sandra Regan, Patrick O’Sullivan, Joel Harper-Jackson, Dan Conway, Georgia Carling, Benjamin Purkiss, Sam Toland-Leigh, Becca Wickes, Nathan Lodge, Stevie Hutchinson, Rory Taylor
With special guest star Lucie Jones

Musical Director/Keys – Samuel Broadbere
Bass – Sean McMinn-Davies
Guitar, Brad Doné, Phil Doran
Drums – Alex Randles
Strings – Stefan Mather, Aimee Harris, Aalyah Booker, Romana Szczepaniac, Jose Gandia, Sam Kennedy, Dori Etheridge, Jay Jenkinson

Produced and Directed by Daniel Wood and Simon Gordon
Orchestrations and Arrangements – Samuel Broadbere
Associate Director – Rory Taylor
Lighting Design – Ashley Heritage

QUEEN BY CANDLELIGHT
London Palladium, 8 April 2025
Selected dates in the UK and overseas currently until September 2025