Month-long run in the Leicester Square Theatre

Harry Hill’s unofficial Tony Blair musical is heading to the West End next year.

Tony! – which tells of how the former Prime Minister ‘ went from peace-loving, long-haired hippy and would-be pop star to warmongering multimillionaire in just a couple of decades’ – is to play at five-week run at the Leicester Square Theatre.

Although physically located in the West End, the venue is not a member of the Society of London Theatre, which comprises the ‘official’ West End.

Described as ‘Yes, Minister meets The Rocky Horror Show’, the rock opera was originally performed at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park last summer, with stand-up Charlie Baker in the lead role – following a short preview run at the Turbine Theatre in Battersea before the pandemic.

The show features a full cast of supporting characters including Cherie Blair, Princess Diana, John Prescott, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell, Osama bin Laden, George W Bush, Saddam Hussein and Gordon Brown.

When the show was first announced, Hill said: ‘‘It’s struck me for a while that Tony Blair’s life is epic - operatic even, in its story arc. I know it doesn’t sound like obvious material for a comedy musical but we’re not laughing at Tony so much as laughing at the choices we made back in the 1990s and early 2000s.’

Hill’s regular musical collaborator Steve Brown wrote the music for the show, and added: ‘‘We could only convey this story in the most overblown of all possible theatrical forms: The Rock Opera... or Poperetta if you will. Fun, catchy but ultimately, a tragedy in the making.’

Hill and and Brown previously collaborated on I Can't Sing!, the Simon Cowell X Factor spoof which played West End for just six weeks in 2014.

Tony!  The Tony Blair Rock Opera will be at the Leicester Square Theatre from April1 5 to May 21 next year.

Published: 5 Dec 2022