Book: Harry Hill
Music & Lyrics: Steve Brown
Director: Peter Rowe
A satirical stomp which camps up British political nostalgia with laugh-out-loud silliness in this hilarious ear worm-worthy juke box musical.
Following a well-planned UK-wide tour of various constituencies, Tony! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera) rounds things off in Liverpool, with the programme marking it as a ‘Liverpool Labour Party Conference Week Special!’, bringing the Blair mania the evening before the party conference comes to its glittering close.
British humour has always been heavily utilised as a vehicle to address political debate with TV shows like Spitting Image, and Have I Got News for You; in this case, the absurdity, comedy and cynicism is beautifully enhanced with the silliness and ridiculousness that Harry Hill’s writing brings, adding the extra magic to this satirical show.
The unlikely star of this musical extravaganza is Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, or Tony! a polarising figure who divided public opinion whilst serving as the British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007; Blair did some good, including the introduction of the minimum wage, ban on fox hunting, expansion of LGBTQ+ rights with the introduction of civil partnerships, and the passing of the Good Friday agreement. And then there was the bad, mainly four wars, including the ‘War on Terror’ and the supposed ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.
An explosive, loud lightning bolt, jolts this musical romp off with a bang. Starting with a deathbed confession which smacks us around a story arc consisting of a whistle stop tour from Blair’s birth, his teenage rock star aspirations, Oxford education all the way through to the end of his premiership.
The way in which this strong, ensemble of nine actors characterises and captures the accurate mannerisms of each persona is spot-on and hilarious. The emphases of character traits are borderline grotesque, cartoonish, and wonderfully absurd. Jack Whittle is perfect as Tony Blair, his ear-to-ear grin, voice and physicality oozes the familiarity of the political showman, with subtle physical nuances representing the puppetry Blair was subject to from those spinning his political career.
Blair captured the mood of the country, who got caught up in the rise of ‘New Labour’, Cool Britannia with its second youngest, coolest Prime Minister at its helm. The musical paces through Blair’s 10-year tenure where we’re reintroduced to several key figures from this time. Interesting, some have been omitted, including the reported incestuous, relationship with media magnate Rupert Murdoch (Blair would later become godfather to Murdoch’s daughter), who was supposedly highly influential in how Blair was treated by the 90s media.
The strong alliance between Blair and US President George Bush (brilliantly played by Martin Johnson) is played out during the song, fondly called, Special Relationship, which plays on the perceived fawning between the two. Princess Diana (wonderfully portrayed by Emma Jay Thomas), another polarising figure, who following her sudden, untimely death, brings Blair to make one of the first public speeches following his new premiership, cementing the sobriquet ‘The People’s Princess’.
Steve Brown’s music and lyrics perfectly threads through this high-octane musical, all performed with the help of the three-piece band. Complimenting the peaks and troughs, from the dramatic, operatic dramatic tableau of Blair’s Evita – esque death bed, to the fiery tango between Blair and his wife Cherie, with her scouse roots amplified, played with sass by Tori Burgess.
Libby Watson’s set and costume design, washed with a black and red theme provides a strong palette throughout the arc of this journey, with multi-purpose set pieces, adding ease and flow to the fast pace of scene transitions. Props and sound effects add extra funny pinches to an already cascade of jokes and catchy songs. All wrapped together nicely under Peter Rowe’s direction, this witty musical tick all the boxes. The finale song, The Whole Wide World, reminds us that we’re all at the hands of questionable leaders, and the humour found in satire, slightly eases the hopelessness of it all.
Runs until 14 October 2023
