TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]

At the tender age of thirty, I mostly associate Tony Blair with my very first childhood experiences of politics. So upon entering the auditorium for Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera I had fully expected a great number of jokes to fly over my head. This was not the case. Despite not knowing who some of the government’s side-characters were, the jokes themselves are entirely graspable and I found no problems in following the plot.

Top-shelf comedy and musical theatre

Tony! presents to us the life and deeds of Britain’s turn-of-the-millennium prime minister, Tony Blair, who infamously started four wars. He is played with hilariously puppet-like mannerisms by Jack Whittle, whose sugar-sweet grins and perkiness wouldn’t look out of place in something like The Book of Mormon.

He is well supported by an insanely talented cast, all providing a rainbow of larger-than-life characters from Blair’s cabinet and beyond. I particularly enjoyed Phil Sealey’s dancing as Saddam Hussein; Tori Burgess’ mischievous Liverpudlian Cherie Blair; Howard Samuels’ panto sneakiness as Peter Mandelson; Martin Johnston’s brilliantly simple-yet-domineering George W. Bush; Rosie Strobel’s cheerful ‘Kill the Infidels’ song as Osama bin Laden; Sally Cheng’s dirty old man Robin Cook; Emma Jay Thomas’ excellent impression of angelic Princess Diana; and William Hazell’s hilarious Mick Jagger.

Every cast member shines with their own light, delivering top-shelf comedy and musical theatre. Direction by Peter Rowe is as slick as could be, with heaps of fun physical gags and a playful set. Harry Hill’s script is hilarious, and offers a refreshingly smart take on dark and controversial subjects, deftly avoiding the most obvious jokes in favour of those that surprise and delight. And Steve Brown’s music and lyrics give a great sense of epic scale to this saga, offering a musical tour of opera, rock, pop and vaudeville.

People who were old enough to remember the details of these events and the politicians depicted may have a greater appreciation of some of the more subtle or situational jokes, but anyone my age or younger should still find a huge amount of entertainment here, as everything is well explained and the characters are well introduced, simplified and exaggerated to fantastic comic effect.

I had a ball watching this, and highly recommend you don’t miss it.

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