Ben Elton has enjoyed success with The Beautiful Game

"The rumour is that we're doing a musical, which is true," he told London radio station Capital Gold.

"Ben Elton has written us a fantastic script," he added.

Biographical

The original plan for the musical was to use biographical material from the band's history.

Queen were one of the biggest bands in the world in the late 1970s and 1980s but lost their main creative force and lead singer Freddie Mercury to Aids in 1991.

May said: "We've actually been working on this damn musical for about four years and been through various ideas, some of which were biographical, which in the end we didn't want to do.

Guitarist Brian May with Liza Minnelli

"But now Ben came up with this great idea, so we've been workshopping it privately and possibly by the end of this year or the beginning of next year we hope it'll be on in the West End."

The remaining band members, May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor will not appear in the musical.

Songs

May said: "Young people will be in it. There'll be a lot of Queen songs with some new ideas in there."

Ben Elton has already scored his first musical success, collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber on The Beautiful Game.

The musical, which follows the fortunes of a football team caught up in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, recently won the Critics' Circle best musical award.

The comedian also successfully adapted his novel Popcorn for the stage.

Brian May was speaking to Mick Brown on Capital Gold and the interview will bebroadcast on 15 March.