Book: James Graham
Music: Elton John
Lyrics: Jake Shears
Director: Rupert Goold
In theory it seems an unlikely combination, a pop-rock music legend, the UK’s foremost political playwright and a disgraced female televangelist from the 1970s and 80s, but in practice this is almost a match made in heaven, producing a piece of musical theatre that has depth and emotional drive as well as narrative shape. The Almeida Theatre’s Tammy Faye, directed by Rupert Goold, is a big story and even bigger eyelashes, and it certainly has its sights set on a West End transfer.
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker want to break into the Christian television market but their wholesome puppet act and desire to entertain is fiercely resisted by the more traditionalist preachers who prefer a fire and brimstone approach to saving souls via the TV. But as the Bakkers build their network, dark forces are pitted against them as jealousy, corruption and adultery force Tammy further into a spotlight she cannot resist.
There are lots of great songwriters out there but new musicals tend to struggle with their book and overall shape, so working with an experienced writer to create rock solid foundations for Tammy Faye proves a very savvy move. James Graham structures a play better than anyone else and here divides this 2 hour and 45-minute show into two sections: the first act charting the rise of the Bakkers and the second tearing them and everything else down. And around this Graham weaves a roughly chronological tale that explores the wider context in which televangelism operated while speaking to the writer’s ongoing interest in societal powerbases – politics, television, newspapers and now the Church.
And Tammy Faye contains many of the writer’s trademarks, not least a warmly humorous script filled with groan-inducing gags – and that’s after Graham starts the whole show with the title character undergoing a rectal exam – allowing more serious conversations and concepts to emerge in an entertaining and accessible format. A range of real-life characters pop up in enjoyable cameos, another characteristic of Graham’s work, including Larry Flynt, John Paul II and Robert Runcie. But there’s also a political thread that runs through exploring the compromised position of the churches that broke convention to openly back Ronald Reagan and launch their own ambitions for office, while the show seeks to unpick opposing visions for conveying God’s word, one sober and stark, the other Tammy Faye-colourful.
Elton John and Jake Shears have created a vibrant score drawing on gospel initially but increasingly country and, in Act Two, musical theatre that mixes numbers big enough to fill a West End house with some wonderfully emotive character-led solos. Tunes like If Only Love, Empty Hands and See You in Heaven are memorable enough to play in your head on the way home while Tammy’s If You Came to See Me Cry is the superb culmination of her story, a song that has shades of Mrs Johnston from Blood Brothers that will surely become a much-performed concert and audition piece.
Katy Brayben is superb as Tammy, a sweet and devoted woman who finds her own agency and voice as troubles pile up, and what a voice Brayben has to command all of those song styles and channel all of Tammy’s charisma into this performance. Andrew Rannells finds the comedic strands within Jim, particularly the early awkwardness of his onscreen presentation style, and Zubin Varla draws on his experience playing Iago to bring gravitas to his role as Jerry Falwell, the arch-nemesis of the Bakkers but Varla’s big numbers Satellite of God and Run This Show are such a highlight along with excellent support from Nicholas Rowe, Steve John Shepherd and Peter Caulfield among an ensemble in multiple roles.
Tammy Faye isn’t quite perfect, there is some muddle in Jim’s trajectory particularly, leaping from clueless wannabe presenter to shady businessman and abuser then back to innocent caught in the crossfire as the scale of corruption and indeed the couple’s active role in it is played down. Somehow it makes Jim feel less real than Tammy – and indeed than Andrew Garfield’s tremendous recent film performance – so it could better explore their mutual culpability and greed in greater detail.
But this is Tammy and Brayben’s night with a performance that reaches out across the room to lift everyone up just as Tammy did on screen.
Runs until 3 December 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Uplifting
