Ian Waller enjoys a bonkers retelling of the story of the former three times prime minister
It turns out that all Tony Blair really wanted to do was meet his rock star hero “Mick Jaggers”. The rest – the Good Friday Agreement, banning fox hunting, creating the minimum wage and the small matter of several wars around the globe – were really just incidental byproducts.
Well, that’s how this more than a bit bonkers retelling of the political universe of Blair is portrayed. Tony! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera) was created by Harry Hill and Steve Brown and perhaps predictably is hilarious and damning, with the ever grinning and absolutely superb Jack Whittle as an idealistic and gormless Tony Blair supported by a wonderful cast of characters who, if they weren’t (loosely) based on real people, might appear too absurd to believe.
The play starts with spin doctor supreme Peter Mandelson – played with wonderful gusto and bags of slime by Howard Samuels – overseeing the final confessions of an ageing Blair, grey haired on his deathbed and surrounded by his political buddies.
Within no time we’re whisked back to the very birth of Blair, then on from school to uni, meeting the love of his life, super scouser Cherie (Tori Burgess) and his political awakening, before taking over the seat of Sedgefield MP and being plotted towards No10 itself.
Along the way there is a superb cast of characters, from cabinet cohorts Robin Cook (Sally Cheng) – constantly boasting about his sexual exploits, Gordon Brown (Phil Sealey) – desperetely reminding Tony about their agreement to share the premiership, plus the likes of a Groucho Marx-esque Saddam Hussein, a thick as whatever George W Bush and the people’s princess herself, Princess Di (Emma Jay Thomas), full of sexual energy with the honourable member for Sedgefield.
The whole production is quite simply fantastic – hilarious, clever, disparaging and silly. The musical highlights have to be Osama Bin Laden’s song and dance Kill The Infidel, even with an audience reluctant to join in, and Saddam’s I Never Did Anything Wrong.
With an audience largely full of that age range who would have lived through Blair’s reign and to whom the characters on display would be very familiar, the production is big hit. The only real question is whether this production would work to a less knowing crowd. My feeling is probably not, although the Harry Hill inspired daftness will always appeal. As a child of the 60s, I loved it – a history lesson unlike any you’ll find in the school classroom and just packed with great performances.
TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Monday 3rd to Saturday 8th July. Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk