Book: Harry Hill
Music and Lyrics: Steve Brown
Director: Peter Rowe
Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera is a bit of a conundrum. It is funny, but not hilarious, the music is good but not great and the narrative is at once long-winded and also incredibly thin. It is absolutely not a rock opera of any description, nor is it quite funny enough to be a parody or spoof.
It doesn’t really seem to know what it is.
That being said, there was something quite enjoyable about Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera, something that elicited smiles and giggles if not belly laughs, and something that compelled the audience to cheer at the end, despite clearly not knowing what to make of the show themselves. That something, was the cast. They threw themselves into the silliness of the show, the breakneck speed of the narrative in the first half and the ridiculous imitations of songs from musicals we already know, and they are clearly having a brilliant time doing it.
This is the second musical to star the now infamous Prime Minister Tony Blair, but the first to involve Harry Hill of TV Burp who wrote the book, and his song writing partner Steve Brown who wrote both the music and lyrics. What possessed them to choose Tony Blair isn’t entirely clear, nor is the angle they are going for with the show. The first half is fairly kind to Blair and is a whistle stop tour through the whole of his early life and his premiership until the death of Princess Diana – there’s an awful lot to get through, and these edited highlights mean that the cast jump from life event to life event with alarming speed without really telling us anything at all. There’s a Sondheim-esque number that is reprised a few times throughout that fancies itself as a parody of Sweeney Todd, a tango and a Les Miserables One Day More style number complete with giant red flag. None of them quite pull off the musical styles enough to clearly achieve parody status.
The second half however focused on a period of just a few years (if that) and felt a little more Jerry Springer the Musical, with a smattering of The Book of Mormon which made the whole thing a good deal funnier. The wit was more acerbic, the sketches involving Saddam Hussein, George Bush, George Osbourne and even a brief appearance by Osama Bin Laden were pretty successful and garnered a lot of laughs because of it. Potentially focusing on a smaller time period and really zoning in on the humour in these situations could actually allow this production to say more by cramming in less.
The cast were excellent, each character was played with the right quirks, as successful caricatures of Robin Cook, David Plunkett and others. Howard Samuels was hilarious in a standout performance as Peter Mandelson, Dick Chaney and Alistair Campbell, frequently breaking the fourth wall to interact with the audience to great effect. Jack Whittle played Tony Blair and had his mannerisms absolutely nailed and while he did not drop his vacuous shiny-eyed grin for a second, behind the character was a clear singing and dancing ability too. Tori Burgess took on Cherie Blair and more often than not was successful, though Cherie sounding like Coleen Nolan was a bit disconcerting to begin with. Again, mannerisms were executed and capitalised on fruitfully.
Harmonies were spot on, and the cast did as much as they possibly could with the mostly distinctly average musical numbers – the very last number however, The Whole Wide World was exactly what final numbers should be – big, bold and full of sass – so the production ends on a high note. This show is interesting, it has potential, but feels like a pick ‘n’ mix pastiche of different genres and a stack of narrative hooks rather than a cohesive rock opera.
Runs until 26th July 2023 then continues touring.
The Reviews Hub Score
A musical conundrum
