EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TONY! [THE TONY BLAIR ROCK OPERA], Pleasance At EICC - Pentland Theatre

My salad days were spent growing up as a teen in the Blair era. My life has been shaped by Cool Britannia, The War on Terror and Sexed-Up Documents. It's in my blood and created the outline of my now fully-formed "Millennial Angst". Therefore, of course I wanted to review a show, examining and laughing at the very first Pop Prime Minister. The man whose speech after the death of Princess Diana changed the way people interacted with politicians for the better. A man later called a liar and a war criminal. 

Sadly, my expectations about this show were not entirely met. The pacing, for a start, felt a little off. This was the 90 minute version of a show, so it's possible there were cuts. However, the leaps through time were both slow and too fast, and the chosen events depicted didn't go into enough depth but also, sometimes too much. Is that even possible? I wouldn't be surprised to find that if someone who didn't know much about the Blair era went to see the show, they would leave not truly understanding what happened in those momentous thirteen years. 

I should start at the beginning though, and this show opens with Blair on his death bed, wanting to confess his sins to a priest. It is then we are taken on a whistle-stop tour of his life, literally starting at his birth - a very funny moment indeed - and moving on to his childhood and obsession with The Rolling Stones, his time at university and eventual job in law and meeting Cherie Booth, his future wife. I must say, the scene where she tells him about the Labour Party as they dry hump on stage was a particularly funny moment and very clearly the brainchild of whacky comedian, Harry Hill. 

And into the politics we go. The landslide election. The death of Princess Diana. The "Special Relationship" with President Bush's America. 

The songs aren't particularly memorable, but there are some good jokes in them. One of them portrayed Blair and Princess Di as close bosom friends, which is something I just don't recall as famous in his premiership. But I wonder if it was all a set-up for his later "People's Princess" speech? It was hard to tell. 

On the evening I saw it, the usual actor who plays Blair - Jack Whittle - was unwell, so stand-in William Hazell took to the stage to play Tony! himself. William was great and really got the physicality of Blair correct, even though I was slightly distracted by the fact he looks uncannily like the later PM, David Cameron. But that's an aside. 

The setting and costumes are simple and effective. Red, black and white. All characters wear the same dark suit with a red tie, only changing wigs, glasses and moustaches for each different character.

Phil Sealy plays Gordon Brown enjoyably, but it's when he changes into Groucho Marx as Saddam Hussain that I really started to chuckle. It was perfect.

Rosie Strobel as John Prescott was bang on and hilarious. On the other hand, when she became Osama Bin Laden I didn't laugh as much. Donning a turban and a comical beard, and singing about "death to the infidels" didn't work for me. If it had been better, more on point satire then it wouldn't have mattered so much. The writing seemed to miss an important opinion; it was actually the West that created the person Osama Bin Laden later became. That would have been much more interesting and funny to lampoon. As it was, the jokes in this number were naff, a bit cheap and it came across as bordering on racist. 

The biggest saviour of all was Howard Samuels. He portrayed Peter Mandelson, Dick Cheney and even briefly Alistair Campbell. He was simply fabulous and stole the show all the way through. 

Overall, it was okay. Kind of entertaining if you like that sort of thing. I feel like it missed the mark though, and didn't quite hit the satire button in the right, or even the funniest way. 

Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] is on at The Pleasance at EICC - The Pentland Theatre August the 6th, 8th - 13th, 15th - 20th, 22nd - 27th

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