It takes a certain kind of person to play a character named after an arms dealer in a dystopian Queen musical—and make it sing. Kyle Gruninger is that person.
In We Will Rock You, the jukebox sci-fi musical built on Queen’s discography and sheer theatrical audacity, Gruninger stars as Commander Khashoggi, the villain trying to silence rock music in a dystopian future run by the Globalsoft Corporation. Yes, it’s a lot. No, it’s not the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic. “That’s the first thing I have to explain,” Gruninger says. “This is not the movie. This is live theater.”
It’s also not the 2002 version of the show, either. The production was recently overhauled with input from Queen’s own musical director, Stuart Morley, who “reclaimed” the arrangements by diving into the original multitracks from Freddie, Brian, and Roger. “They made it more Queen,” says Gruninger. “We’re the first cast to get this new version, and it just hits harder.”
Hard enough to make audiences cheer when the opening riff of “Fat Bottomed Girls” hits—while blinking confusedly at “Seven Seas of Rhye,” Gruninger’s own showpiece. “They don’t know what’s happening at first,” he laughs. “I’m torturing Bohemians on stage. It’s a whole thing. But it’s a deep cut, and getting to perform something they don’t know? That’s what makes it cool.”
Gruninger does his homework. He went full armchair historian researching the real-life Khashoggi—arms dealer, yacht owner, Queen song namesake—before stepping into the role. But it’s the costume that really unlocks it. “The moment I put it on—this wild, standout thing with the sunglasses—I became Khashoggi,” he says.
Not bad for a guy who came to Queen late. “I was maybe 18 when I first heard ‘Prophet’s Song’ in a car with quadraphonic speakers,” he says. “I just sat there, mouth open. From then on, Freddie Mercury was it.”
It’s clearly rubbed off. Between shows, Gruninger is juggling two music projects: his band In Kirra, whose recent singles “Remodel” and “Living a Lie” lean theatrical and heavy, and his solo EP Picture Perfect, which he admits is less Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and more Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever” on a bad day. “Those songs—‘Help Me Save Myself Tonight,’ ‘Abandon Me’—they’re about the darker stuff,” he says. “Music is how I work through my own demons.”
The melodrama’s earned. When he’s not on stage in a high-concept rock opera, he’s on the road, in the studio, or somewhere in between. “There’s no downtime,” he says. “Being an artist in 2019, you survive by moving. Constantly.”
But at least he’s making it count. “There’s a crossover,” he says of his own music and the Queen show. “It’s all theater. And when you live inside that world, it gets into your writing. I mean, how could it not?”
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below.
