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British musicals look back with laughter on Blair years
2007-08-16
Critics often said former British prime minister Tony Blair brought a touch of theatre to Downing Street, but now the tables have been turned thanks to two musicals at the Edinburgh Fringe devoted to him. "Tony! The Blair Musical" and "Tony Blair -- The Musical" both take an irreverent look at Blair's 10 years in power, barely six weeks after he stepped down and Gordon Brown took over the country's top job. The two shows examine the often tense relationship between the pair and feature a string of supporting characters including US President George W. Bush and Blair's wife Cherie. "Tony Blair -- The Musical" starts out with the two as best friends, sharing what writer James Lark describes as "a pastiche of a Cole Porter love duet" in which Brown sings: "If you're Butch Cassidy, then I'm your Sundance Kid." But by the gory end, Brown and his supporters are literally stabbing Blair in the back as he becomes more dismissive of his chancellor and preoccupied with the "war on terror." The play uses the arrival of Bush, sporting a cowboy hat and singing a battle-cry of a country and western song accompanied by line-dancing soldiers, as the turning point in the two men's relationship. "What makes Blair an interesting character is him being a slightly tragic figure," Lark said. "I think he's a man who does take everything personally and who didn't want his whole political career being boiled down to the war in Iraq, which fair or not, it has been." Critics have described Lark's production as more serious-minded than its rival, "Tony! The Blair Musical," which is more interested in raucous portraits of the characters involved and dwells less on political issues. Highlights here include Blair, who was in a student band at university and often spoke of his love of pop music, taking the stage with a guitar at his 1997 election victory rally to perform for the assembled crowd. Writer-director Chris Bush said that Blair's personality made him an ideal subject for a musical, adding that he could not imagine writing a show about the dour Scotsman, Brown. "I guess there's a certain degree of striking while the iron is hot," he said. "There's a faint nostalgia for him, even if not for his politics -- for his charisma and his charm, even if he's a figure that people wish to vilify." Bush's show is given an intriguing twist by the involvement of Ed Duncan Smith, the student son of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who led the divided Tories against a strong Blair between 2001 and 2003. Duncan Smith plays his father in the production, singing in a barber shop quartet of former Tory leaders, and also stars as Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Bush said that Duncan Smith senior had been to see the play and offered his approval. "We're not out to vilify Tony Blair or anyone else," he said. "Everyone comes in for a certain degree of ridicule but none of it is cruel or particularly aggressive. "I'm far more interested in making something entertaining." Both shows have received warm reviews from critics -- Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper said they offered "instant nostalgia -- back to the glory days of New Labour before that rather solemn interloper took over." "Blair was always a showman, with a twinkle in his eye that suggested it was all a great big joke," the review added. "His mannerisms and rhetoric were made for comic opera." The Times added: "The fact that people keep making dramas about him is surely the best evidence that Tony Blair turned politics into showbusiness."
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