Tony! The Blair Musical, C Venues
Star rating: ****
Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical, Udderbelly
Star rating: ****
Seriously: Pet shop Boys Reinterpreted, Rocket Venues at Demarco Roxy Art House
Star rating: ****
Cultural icons can be enigmatic, whether they are political, popular or pornographic, but whatever their contributions, famed persons, fictional or factual, can shape the outlook of the times like no ordinary Joe ever could.
Love him or hate him, Tony Blair is one such person, and he's the subject of Tony! The Blair Musical, by White Rose Theatre. Proving "there ain't no party like a Labour Party", the gifted cast lay waste and tribute to such Blair intimates as Gordon Brown, John Prescott, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.
The characters are played straight, to great effect, instead letting the sharp, invective script shine through their straightforward delivery. The laughs come fast and hard as Blair kneels down, and in his unique vocal pattern, begs God for help, which comes in the form of the recently-deceased Princess of Wales.
The jokes are spot-on and the songs performed with flair. Numbers such as Talk About Anything ridicule the Blairites' habit of boastful transparency while refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and even the Tory leaders during Blair's tenure are given a sad song about their lack of charisma in the face of such toothy glad-handing.
Tony! The Blair Musical is the best of political satires, and couldn't have come at a better time.
While pornography might not be as openly influential as politics, it leaves no lighter imprint on the zeitgeist.
As such, Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical takes the traditional seventies Palme d'Or of porn and turns it on its head with singing, dancing and simulated sex.
The talented cast of Kens and Barbies take self-aware irony to a new limit in the story of Debbie, a poor provincial cheerleader with a chance to shout for the Dallas Cowboys. Troubled with the task of having to raise money for the trip, Debbie and her empty-headed friends embark on a series of after-school jobs that are not always what they seem.
The show is tightly paced and expertly choreographed, and the singing is top-notch. As for the famously explicit bits, expect no more than some risque sex pantomimes and a bare bum or two.
Pornographic legends aside, there are few lasting icons in popular memory that aren't involved in the glitz and glamour of the pop world. And you don't get much more glam than Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant.
Seriously: Pet Shop Boys Reinterpreted takes the popular, hits of the eighties duo and turns them into swooning, operatic numbers, lushly accompanied by a piano quintet.
Presented by David Knox and Dean Lotherington, director and musical director respectively, this reimagining of club hits is a beautiful, moving and breathlessly powerful rendering, led by the gigantic musical talents of Anthony Costanzo, Tania Doko, Maria Mercedes, Paul Ross and Michael Howard Smith.
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