Maximum Queen plays the Athens Theatre twice on Friday, Nov 6

The Queen tribute plays two sets in one night in downtown DeLand next Friday, an early 5 p.m. show and an 8 p.m. show, with reserved seats from $35.

There's a choice to make before next Friday: early or late. Maximum Queen plays the Athens Theatre in downtown DeLand twice on Friday, Nov 6, at 5:00 p.m. and again at 8:00 p.m. The early set gets you out in time for dinner on Woodland. The late one is the classic Friday night out.

Tickets go through the Athens box office. Preferred Reserved seats, the first six rows of the orchestra and the two center rows of the balcony, are $40. General Reserved is $35. A box of six costs $300 and is booked by phone at 386-736-1500. The theater adds a $5 processing charge per ticket plus 6.5% state and county sales tax, and tickets are refunded only if the performance is cancelled. By phone, the box office is open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m., and opens again an hour and a half before each event.

On its event page, the Athens bills the show as a tribute that recreates Queen's songs, effects and music note for note. That's a high bar for a band whose catalog runs from piano ballads to stadium stomps to multi-tracked operatic choirs. The frontman is Martyn Jenkins, a Welsh singer who plays Freddie Mercury. He previously fronted the touring *Night at the Opera* show in Europe and has sung with Maximum Queen since 2010. The players behind him are veterans of Classic Albums Live, the series built on playing records exactly as they were cut, and they sing as well as play. In Queen songs, those harmony stacks are half the job.

The band is no stranger to this part of Florida. This fall it has already played the Marion Theatre in Ocala, on Oct 3, and earlier this year the Riverview Performing Arts Center in Sarasota. It has also turned up on the Daytona Beach Bandshell's Star Spangled Summer series. In our records, this is its first Daytona Beach-area date, but local Queen fans may already know the name.

A tribute act lives or dies on whether the room sings back.

The room is half the appeal. The Athens is one of the landmark buildings of DeLand's historic downtown, a theater on North Florida Avenue built for movies and vaudeville that now mixes its own theater-company season with touring concerts. On our count it seats about 453, small enough that the balcony still feels close to the stage. That counts for a lot at a show where the big moment is a full house singing back the "Bohemian Rhapsody" choir parts or clapping along to "We Will Rock You."

What to know: the theater's address is 124 N. Florida Ave. If you're bringing kids or want an earlier night, the 5 p.m. set is the one. Buy through the Athens's own box office, not resellers, and you'll pay the prices above.

Here's a chance to hear the music played the way the records sound, in a room built for listening.

Sources: Maximum Queen – Athens Theatre (event page) (athensdeland.com); Athens Theatre – Box Office (athensdeland.com); Athens Theatre – All Events (athensdeland.com); Absolute Queen – Athens Theatre (athensdeland.com); Our 2026-2027 Athens Theatre Company Theatrical Season (athensdeland.com); Maximum Queen – Ocala/Marion County (ocalamarion.com); Maximum Queen – Visit Sarasota (visitsarasota.com); Star Spangled Summer: Maximum Queen – AXS (axs.com); The historic architecture of DeLand, Florida – National Trust for Historic Preservation (savingplaces.org)