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I had a fantastic evening last night (25/07/23) , watching Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] at the Darlington Hippodrome. I was blown away by what I witnessed on that stage and here is why:
The Writing
As you would expect from the duo of Harry Hill and Steve Brown, the writing was hilarious! Every joke hit, one after the other. The comedy felt like a boxing match between Harry Hill and the audience, and in this scenario - He just kept hitting us while we were down. I don't think I have ever laughed that much in my life! Honestly this writing is comedic genius.
The Cast
To bring the writing to life, this show boasts an excellent cast of talented performers - all of whom make this show what it is, and they truly are the heart of it.
Front and centre playing the title role of Tony Blair, was Jack Whittle. Jack's performance in this role was extremely energetic, his stance, movements and of course that famous grin were all on point. Jack’s charisma and energy carried the show and his lovely vocals were smooth and impressive. A True Standout performance - although this can be said for the entire cast who worked so hard to bring an incredible performance to the stage.
Howard Samuels took on the part of Peter Mandelson among many others including Dick Chaney. Samuels often was the link between the show and the audience, consistently breaking the fourth wall and he absolutely knew how to play to the crowd. The comedy oozed out of Samuels and this brought lots of fun and energy to the production.
Cherie Blair was played by Tori Burgess. Burgess’ performance was high energy, hilarious and exciting. She brings huge character to this role and becomes such an eye-catching performer that you want to watch whenever she is on the stage!
Phil Sealey is Gordon Brown (and others). Sealey was perfection in the role of Gordon Brown, the characterisation was top notch and his entire performance was enthusiastic and strong.
Martin Johnston played Neil Kinnock, George Bush and many others. I found Johnston’s performance incredible. The differentiation between each character played was second to none and you really would not think it was the same performer if you didn’t know better! Not to mention, Johnston’s stunning vocals!
John Prescott (and Others) was played by Rosie Strobel. Strobel gave an energetic and wonderful performance, with impeccable comedic timing. Every role Strobel played was easily recognised and characterised incredibly well. We even found ourselves clapping along to one of her musical numbers ‘Kill the Infidel’ which gives an idea of just how convincing her performance was!
Sally Cheng played Robin Cook, this character came onto the stage and provided many moments of laughter for the audience. Cook clearly knows how to land a joke and left us roaring with laughter.
Princess Diana was played by Emma Jay Thomas, her grace and elegance really did bring the ‘People’s Princess’ to the stage and her vocals were stunning.
Finally, William Hazell who is the on-stage cover for the show, but also plays some smaller roles throughout including Tony Blair’s idol which I will not spoil. Hazell was funny, eccentric and magnificent in this role and it really did give the audience another huge laugh, telling Tony exactly what everybody was thinking about him…. Enough said there I think.
The Well-Known Story and Events
Obviously, cleverly written by Harry Hill, this show was going to be wonderful. However the story sailed through points of Tony’s life that a good majority of the audience had lived through and remembered. For them, this was a hellish trip down memory lane - In a fantastic way of course. For me and my generation, who have heard about these events from family and watched youtube clips of these speeches, it was a history lesson. Well, take that with a grain of salt as I’m not too sure where Osama Bin Laden singing a jazzy solo number comes into the history books (but I’m sure it is there somewhere…). My Grandad summed up his feelings during the interval and I thought it was far too good not to quote so here it is: “You laugh, but I had to live through this!”. Which I personally believe, the full intention of the piece was to make people think this.
Other Elements
The choreography by Francesca Jaynes was both simple and effective making for dreamy visuals onstage. Paired with lighting by Mark Dymock and Set and Costume by Libby Watson all fitting the piece perfectly.
The style of this piece is somewhat like The Book of Mormon meets Spitting Image - or something along those lines and I just think it is magnificent. We came away from this show beaming, on such a high and saying how much we loved this production.
One tiny thing, was the amount of Haze used sometimes (on rare occasions) meant we momentarily (only for a few seconds) lost sight of one or two characters but aside from this I have no criticism for this show. It has heart, energy and comedy and I really hope this show has a further life beyond this tour as I truly believe it has potential to be big. The show itself is humble - It is not trying to be something else, It remains the art-form that it is and that is another, among many reasons why I loved it so much.
I’ll stop here before I ramble anymore.
Tickets for the show are available from:
Heading from Darlington to: Sedgefield, Edinburgh Fringe, Derby, Bromley, Eastbourne, Salford and Liverpool. Please do try and catch it as in my opinion this was a wonderful show!
Wednesday 26th July 2023
Robbie Davies | Robbie’s Backstage Bants