Are you ready to rock?
Ruby Lewis stars as Scaramouche in the first North American tour of the renowned London jukebox musical “We Will Rock You,” created by music legends Queen and written by writer and comedian Ben Elton. In this futuristic musical, everything from music to clothing is controlled by a corporation and instruments are banned until a group of bohemians fight back.
Originally from the small town of Shelbyville, Ky., Lewis started acting at a young age, performing in community theater and church productions. She studied musical theater at Western Kentucky University and has starred in the national tour of “Gypsy,” the second national tour of “Jersey Boys,” and the first Broadway national tour of “Grease.” “We Will Rock You” is her fourth national tour.
She auditioned for the role of Scaramouche in Los Angeles and flew to New York for the final call back. The cast rehearsed in New York for six weeks.
Lewis describes Scaramouche as an outcast who won’t to conform to a society where people can’t be themselves and everyone is forced to work for the government.
“She’s angsty because she lived in a society in the future where everything’s really decided for you, everything’s computer-generated … You can’t be creative, you can’t be an individual,” said Lewis.
Scaramouche meets Galileo, a young man who shares her frustrations, and they decide to escape. Lewis said they “end up on a really fantastical journey together, trying to find and revive rock ’n’ roll, as it were, from the past in hopes of bringing back the humanity.”
The first song Lewis sings in the show is “Somebody to Love,” which she loves performing.
“It’s a chance for the audience to meet Scaramouche and to see how vulnerable and how big her heart is … and how much it means to her to find true love,” she said.
Lewis said there is a lot of pressure to sing songs that are so iconic — especially in front of Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, who were in Baltimore for the opening of the tour in October.
She said, “You want to do it justice, and you know how much it means to them because [late Queen lead singer] Freddie Mercury was such a light in everyone’s lives and in their lives.”
Lewis said she relates to her character’s struggle of being a teenager: being pressured by trends and feeling you have to adhere to different standards.
“I really felt pressure as a teen wanting to stand out and be an individual but getting shunned for it or being made fun of for it, and that’s a hard age to deal with stuff like that,” said Lewis. “I certainly look back at my teenage years and relate and understand why she wanted to get away from all of that.”
Blond and blue-eyed Lewis is unrecognizable with the purple hair, heavy makeup and leather ensembles she wears as Scaramouche, and she loves how the costumes transform the cast.
“Once we’re all on stage together, wearing these crazy rock ’n’ roll bohemian costumes, you’re automatically in the world. … It’s easier to strut around when you’re wearing the hot red leather skirt and a corset,” she said.
Lewis said this production is much different from other jukebox musicals like “Jersey Boys” because the songs are performed in their entirety by a full band, so audiences feel as if they are at a real rock concert. She said the audience will be immersed in the show, and they can expect to laugh a lot and escape because they are taken to a different world.
She said, “Everyone knows Queen, and I think people have been really excited to see and hear Queen music, and to see it performed live, especially some of the songs — they weren’t even performed live by Queen themselves. It just really marries satire and comedy and the fantastical nature of Queen’s music, and everyone in the show is insanely talented and have crazy rock ’n’ roll voices.”
Lewis now lives in Los Angeles and has made appearances on shows like “Hart of Dixie” and “Desperate Housewives.” She hopes to continue pursuing film and TV roles but still loves performing in front of an audience because of how intimate and collaborative it is, and this show is no exception.
“The fact that it is Queen music — we’re really putting our heart and soul into it and I think audiences can tell,” Lewis said.
She said the tour becomes a bonding experience, especially because the cast gets thrown together, living and working with each other and having to get along quickly.
“We all have people back home that we miss; we all have different things the road makes difficult, but we have a lot of things in common: that is the show and how amazing it is to be singing Queen music for a living,” said Lewis.
“We Will Rock You” will be at the Adrienne Arsht Center Ziff Ballet Opera House in Miami Dec. 10 through 15. For tickets, check out arshtcenter.org.
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