When the Tories visit Manchester, the Lowry in Salford pays homage to Labour’s Longest-Serving Hero!
“TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]” draws inspiration from the UK’s longest-serving Labour politician, offering a unique and surreal perspective on Tony Blair’s life and his tenure as Prime Minister through the creative lens of Harry Hill (writer) and Steve Brown (music and lyrics)
The production is very fast paced, if not a little bit too much at times. However, when covering Blair’s youthful days as the frontman of Ugly Rumours, his turbulent decade in office, his collaboration with President Bush on the War on Terror, his reaction to Princess Diana’s death and his personal life, including his marriage, there is a lot to get through.
The collaboration between Harry Hill and Steve Brown brings together a production of sketch comedy, stand-up, and catchy musical numbers. However, the production’s humour is akin to Hill’s TV Burp, so if you don’t like the later, this might not be for you.
The cast are very energetic and versatile, shifting between multiple characters with varying degrees of success. Jack Whittle as Blair keeps the show moving at a brisk pace and is quite delightful to watch.
With the live backing band adding to the performance, this production relies on caricature-driven storytelling and the eccentricity of the cast, which isn’t entirely my “thing”, but kept the audience generally engaged throughout.
After a long tour ” TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]” is presenting this “Manchester Conservative Party Conference Week Special” until the 7th October, before heading over to the Liverpool Playhouse for its “Labour Party Conference Week Special”. I wonder if the man himself might appear and more importantly I would love to know what he would think?
Ticket LinkBy Dean Thomas-Lowde
For Ancoats Plus
