Writers: Harry Hill (Book) & Steve Brown (Music & Lyrics)
Director: Peter Rowe
To some, the imagined deathbed of former Prime Minister – now multimillionaire – Tony Blair might sound like a bit of a downer; to others, a party! To Harry Hill and Steve Brown, it’s ripe for a comedy rock opera, larger-than-life and louder than thunder. If you’re after a political satire with clowning, capers, and satisfyingly farcical choreography, then this could well be the show for you. But even if you don’t know your Cook from your Blunkett there is still much here to be enjoyed. This show isn’t trying to be subtle. It’s joyously clunky and unashamedly obvious. Gordon Brown [Phil Sealey] sings a speech (he really did make) about macroeconomics, with his trousers around his ankles, and Peter ‘Mandy’ Mandelson [Howard Samuels] trains Tony Blair [Whittle] in sleazy spin using a carrot and a stick.
Taste-wise Tony! is no doubt questionable, but this show refuses to take itself seriously. If we can do the same, we’re in for a raucous treat of zany antics and plenty of punching up at the egoists and psychopaths that dare to assume leadership. Despite the nods to eccentric vintage comedy, the show has an unexpectedly refreshing feel as it wildly blows off the cobwebs that have formed over the turn of the millennium politics. Tony!’s cobbled-together aesthetic of scrappy wigs, false beards, thick eyebrows held on with elastic, and badly fitting bald caps is so perfect for this show. It’s like a group of kids raided their dressing-up box and then made up speeches to say in silly voices.
The surprisingly poignant moments in Tony!, of bombs dropping and reported death tolls, may be considered brief, but they are made all the more memorable for being surrounded by caricatures. Tony [Whittle] is a classic Bertie Wooster type – a privileged, clueless Englishman. He enters politics, so he might meet his hero, Mick ‘Jaggers’. He stays for the validation. Naïve, impressionable and charismatic, Jack Whittle’s brilliant portrayal of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair doesn’t miss a beat, except when he’s beautifully missing every beat as he follows around the persuasive George W. Bush [Martin Johnston] like a lapdog. Tony [Whittle] smiles inanely through major event after major event, very often startled as the rest of the cast around him starts singing.
Other fabulous caricatures include Neil Kinnock [Martin Johnston], John Prescott [Rosie Strobel], Robin Cook [Sally Cheng], Princess Diana [Emma Jay Thomas], and Cherie Booth [Tori Burgess]. Howard Samuels delightfully embodies Peter Mandelson, who acts as a corrupt guide, of sorts, part Prince of Darkness, part pantomime dame. His exuberant asides to the audience bring much laughter as he jumps in and out of playing other characters. Phil Sealey does a super job of recreating Gordon Brown, giving him a stroppy, sulky attitude problem, as he awaits his chance to play Prime Minister. In the second half, Sealey also gives an exceptional performance as Saddam Hussain in the style of Groucho Marx, as he sings “I Never Done Anything Wrong”.
Writer Steve Brown points out that many of the most popular musicals of all time covered subjects that “rendered them disasters in the making”, and so he met the call from Hill to work with the rise and fall (ish) of Tony Blair. Steve Brown’s songs are witty and wonderfully constructed. He takes the vibes of a rock opera and combines it with a variety of musical styles: Sondheim, Gilbert and Sullivan, Flanders and Swann, Broadway Musicals, and Yankee Doodle Razzamatazz. The final musical number “The Whole Wide World” (is run by arseholes) is the rousing cathartic note we need to end on, which takes us home happy (ish), as happy as we can be in the political circumstances, and with an eerie sense of new hope.
Reviewed on 27th June
The Reviews Hub Score
Hilariously Joyful Political Satire
