As a Broadway Star, Tony Blair's Good for Laughs
by Zoe Strimpel
Sun, 27 Jan 2008 at 2:23 PM
It met with foul reviews, the Guardian condemning it for lacking "edge, originality or a strong point of view," and other outlets saying much the same. But "Blair on Broadway," written by first-timer Ian Hollingshead with music by Timothy Muller, made this perhaps naïve viewer laugh. A lot.
The premise is that Tony Blair (played by a blond and youthful Joshua Martin), "the finest actor of the age," decides to shun the usual post-prime-ministerial beat of biographies and lecture tours in favor of something flashier: starring in a Broadway musical about his story.
The characters, then, include hilarious renditions of disgraced Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott (the actor sported inflatable inserts to fatten himself up); a dribbling, deformed, and sinister Gordon Brown; a rabid, rapping Jeremy Paxman (the presenter of "Newsnight" and recently star of the Marks & Spencer "pants" furor); a controlling Peter Mandelson; spin doctor Alastair Campbell, and, of course, George Bush. For close to two hours, we cruise through the whole Blair decade, from the shaping of New Labour and Third Way politics through Iraq and at last to Blair finally standing down.
Perhaps more politically savvy viewers found the show cringe-worthy because it tends to state the obvious. References to every major scandal, quirk, or faux pas that characterized Blair's tenure are faithfully inserted throughout, and all the familiar tics are there (Blair's smooth, clipped voice; Cherie's ill-controlled quips at Brown). But for someone whose knowledge of British politics has come about mainly through osmosis rather than pointed interest, it was gratifying to recognize so much of the very recent political past. And hilarious — even the song whose chorus goes, "Glamorous war ... fabulous war ... wonderful war," and so on couldn't fail to raise a chuckle.
But the treatment of Iraq did rankle somewhat, mainly because (as the Guardian pointed out) it brought nothing new to an issue still very much in our face. And for all that critics accused the show of not having a point of view, the bias was clear: that Iraq was an illegal war for the sake of ego flattery only. It is worrying to think that, in the future, children could watch this play as a study aid to the Blair years and take it all as history set in stone. These reservations aside, this was an extremely jolly way to spend an evening.
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