The ghost of Beyond the Fringe must be smiling benignly down on Tony!
The Blair Musical, as a group of well-spoken, tie wearing male undergraduates proves emphatically that there is glorious life yet in the student revue.
With its lack of props and rudimentary staging, this looks exactly what it is, a show transferred from Edinburgh, and it's all the better for such absence of fuss and bother.
Chris Bush and Ian McCluskey's conceit is simple, yet ruthlessly effective: Blair looking back on the Downing Street years. The lyrics to the infectiously catchy songs are spot-on, and what a lovely idea to have a barbershop quartet of defeated Tory leaders. It's even more delicious to learn that Iain Duncan Smith is played by his son Ed.
With such uncannily accurate gestures, voice and inflections James Duckworth could make a living as a Blair impersonator, should there be any call for that sort of thing now.
Tony! Until 22 Sept.
(pleasance.co.uk)
Tony! The Blair Musical
Pleasance Theatre
Carpenter's Mews, North Road, Islington, N7 9EF
