Warren Vernon-Driscoll sings every Queen song in its original key — no transpositions, no concessions to the range that would make a 40-date tour survivable. That commitment is not incidental to Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic; it is the production’s argument. The Showtime Australia show has been drawing reviews that read more like grudging acknowledgment than boilerplate: “It felt like a real Queen concert,” wrote Vancouver’s Best Places. Stage & Screen called it “live, loud and literally awe-smacked.”
About the Show
Showtime Australia, which has spent more than 40 years producing tribute concerts internationally, brings the 2026 Canadian leg to Kingston on Friday, October 9. The production is built around Vernon-Driscoll, who was born in 1992 on South Africa’s Eastern Cape, trained classically as Head Chorister at the Drakensberg Boys Choir, and later joined the South African Youth Choir. He has performed alongside Luciano Pavarotti and Joshua Bell, and has fronted this production since 2018, handling vocals, guitar, and piano live on stage. His training extended to Baroque studies at the university level, a background that helps explain the technical precision he brings to Mercury’s catalog.
Vernon-Driscoll on the insistence on original keys: “When you lower the key for any of Queen or Freddie Mercury’s music you take away the energy and magic of the music.” On the broader stakes of the role: “There will always and only ever be one Freddie Mercury, so I pay tribute to him in the best ways I can.”
The set covers the canonical peaks: Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio GaGa, I Want to Break Free, Somebody to Love, Don’t Stop Me Now, Another One Bites the Dust, A Kind of Magic, and more. The show runs approximately two and a half hours with a 20-minute intermission. The production travels with large screens, elaborate lighting, and period costuming, and uses smoke, haze, and strobe effects throughout. The 2026-2027 tour covers more than 40 dates across North America and Australia. This production is not affiliated with Queen or the Freddie Mercury Estate.
Venue & Logistics
The Kingston Grand Theatre’s Rosen Auditorium, at 218 Princess Street in Kingston, Ontario, is a theater setting suited to the scale of production this show brings. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. The north-country concert calendar lists additional shows in the region.
Tickets
Adult tickets are $83.70 all-in; children, $53.70 all-in; groups of six or more pay $78.70 per person all-in. Buy tickets