7 – 10 June
If you like your humour fast paced and packed full of personality and energy, then Tony! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera), written by comedian Harry Hill and musician Steve Brown, might be right up your street. It is delivered with the help of some instantly likeable and catchy tunes. The fact they are just as quickly forgotten is irrelevant. The intention of this show is not to entrance you with Lloyd-Webber or Sondheim-like showstoppers, nor stir emotions, nor meditate on geo-political history, nor speculate on the existence of weapons of mass destruction. This is slapstick silliness with the sole purpose of tickling the funny bone. As director Peter Rowe puts it, ‘there’s vaudeville, stand up, pantomime, patter routines, visual gags and more beards, wigs, and hats than you can shake a slapstick at.’ Indeed, this is something of a comedic montage. Some of it works well, for example the final song, a jolly Pythonesque singalong, with a refrain of ‘the whole wide world is run by arseholes’, proving to be a great crowd pleaser with the Birmingham audience.
The production values are reflected in the very moderately priced seats. There’s a three-piece band and a cast of nine, most of who play multiple well-known characters from our recent national and international past. The play covers events from the birth of Tony Blair to his entry into politics at bewildering speed, mostly whizzing past within a single musical number. Then the characters start rocking up in a sort of role-of-honour or Who’s Who of turn-of-the-century politics, often denoted only by an exaggerated mannerism, accent, wig or prop – Cherie Blair, John Prescott, Neil Kinnock, Robin Cook, Peter Mandelson, Gordon Brown, and a flirtatious cameo from the ‘People’s Princess’.
The second act had a more international flavour with the focus shifting to the world leaders and personalities that took us from 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq. All of this was carried by the talents of an excellent cast, with only Jack Whittle as the eponymous Tony Blair remaining as a single character actor. Whittle gave a highly credible performance as Blair, having mastered several of his caricature mannerisms.
Like any comedy, the subjectivity of humour is not going to be to everyone’s taste. The pace is relentless and there were very few dynamic interludes. The singing was strong, however, often the diction was poor and at times only half of the lyrics were discernible. And some of the gags were simply lame. As a Roman Catholic on his death bed, Blair asks Mandelson, ‘Call me a priest!’, to which Mandelson replies, ‘You are a priest!’ Indeed, many of the jokes were carried by the personality of the cast rather than being especially funny in themselves.
Do not expect cutting wit and incisive political satire, for this rock opera is more about boisterous banter. You may well ask whether that is the best way to revisit some of the most serious issues of the last thirty years. With the alleged lies told to Parliament and an illegal war that cost countless lives, surely there must be some serious elements to it? Well, if there were, they were glossed over. We were prompted at least twice, however, to recall that Mr Blair delivered the ban on fox hunting. If there was one poignant message in the whole affair, it may have been when Blair reminded us that even after his illegal war in Iraq he was re-elected as our Prime Minister, and if ‘the whole wide world is run by arseholes’, sometimes it is us who afford them their power.
★★★☆☆ Robert Gainer 8 June 2023
Photo Credit: Mark Senior
