The Tony Blair Rock Opera Archives

With the Tory party conference infesting the centre of Manchester this week, Salford is sticking a metaphorical two fingers up at Rishi & Co by hosting TONY! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera) in the lovely Quays Theatre at The Lowry. I gladly crossed the River Irwell to witness a musical that had a satirical bite hidden within the high camp farce. With Music & Lyrics by Steve Brown and a book by comedian Harry Hill, we were never going to be presented with a totally serious analysis of political events in the eighties, nineties and noughties, their zany and sometimes surreal take on events allowed younger members of the audience a potted history delivered in an entertaining fashion, without patronising those of us of an older vintage who lived through these episodes. Hill initially...

Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera is a modern rock opera that sets out to tell the story of the ex-prime minister who modernised Labour and catapulted them to new heights with his ‘New Labour’ landslide election victory in 1997, ending 18 years of Conservative government. Like Tony Blair himself, this production has good points, and bad points. It is probably forgivable and understandable that this show steers clear of outright satire, after all, Blair is still alive and has very, very deep pockets. Some parts of the script actually make comic reference to this! Unfortunately, this lack of bite made for an enjoyable, but perhaps ultimately unedifying evening. More Spitting image than Question Time but then again what do you expect from writer Harry Hill! We start the evening, with a...

Tag: The Tony Blair Rock Opera

TONY! (The Tony Blair Rock Opera) – The Lowry

TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] – EICC