TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera]

A superb spectacle, great actors and great songs and dance numbers. I thought Howard Samuels was absolutely elite with his acting, singing, facial expressions and was absolutely glued to watching him. The only thing that ruined the show was the ending. It was a slap in the face, I felt like I had been tricked into thinking it was a show about Blair when it was all a build-up to criticise Putin. How original. I’m also surprised that they chose such a young actor to play Blair, although the actor was great. I loved the show but didn’t enjoy the carrot being spat on me, my advice is to sit a few rows back.

We saw this show on the 1st night and it was absolutely fantastic. Loved everything about it, the cast are superb, the acting and singing of top quality. It is high energy, funny and the ending is superb yet a sad reflection of the horrors of the world. I cannot praise this cast and the actual show and writing highly enough. Have seen a broad number of shows but this is one of the top. Well done everyone involved.

We don’t leave negative reviews generally. If you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all. But this piece of absolute crud is so offensive and unbearable that it seems cruel not to warn people. We left an hour in (and at least twenty others had gone before us). I feel so sad for these wonderfully talented performers who have to perform such abysmal trash every night. Save yourself the time, money and energy and don’t buy a ticket. Oh well…at least the EICC has the most comfy chairs at the Fringe.

I suspect this is one of those 'Marmite' shows - you'll love it or hate it, and that's reflected in the mix of reviews here I think.

On the plus side, the venue is the most comfortable space on the whole fringe in my experience - sadly though that makes it easier to nod off at points in the show.

The performers were of a good standard - they can all sing, all hold harmonies and got the caricature characters off very well. It's a shame that the sound let down a lot of the ensemble singing as many of these songs turned to word mush and some of the lines I lost in there might have been funny if we could have heard them. The solo songs and dialogue were OK though.

The piece however does make you feel a bit uncomfortable occasionally. I'm not a great one for supporting the PC brigade (and certainly am not a fan of modern 'woke' culture) but this possibly crossed the line for me a couple of times.

You have to take it for what it is - a caricature of the events of TB's life and premiership, and an irreverent p*ss-take of all that happened around that time and the people involved. It's probably a bit past it's time in being presented now, and will need a reasonably narrow age-range of audience to fully understand it. Millennials would be well-advised to avoid it. Come to think of it many of the rest of us would also be advised to avoid it.

Silly, funny, witty, puerile, and most definitely a must see.

Mel Brooks, step aside. We have seen many West End and Broadway shows but hardly expected to find that quality at Fringe. DO NOT MISS. You need a modicum of political and social awareness to appreciate the genius of this show, the talent of the performers, musicians, and direction is top notch. Superb. BTW, I'll not share the final song's title because it is worth the price of any show. Anyone offended by some subjects simply does not admit what the final song tells us about how we are all ruble to the rich.

Having been built as conference facility, the EICC is the very antithesis of most Fringe venues. It has very comfy chairs with lots of legroom and great sight lines throughout the auditorium. There’s even a little foldy-out table if you want to take notes - which might come in handy if you were attending, say, ‘Health & Safety Matters Live’ on 16 November, or the 62nd Meeting of the International Spinal Cord Society in October. However, if you are attending Tony Blair the Rock Opera, there is one key problem with the place and that’s the audio quality. I don’t know whether this is due to bad setup, the age of the listener’s ears (mine are 56 years old) or indeed their location (ie four rows from the back rather than on either side of my head), but the ensemble singing was often incomprehensible meaning that I couldn’t even get offended by the puerile humour (as some reviewers have) because I couldn’t hear it.

To be honest I was unlikely to be offended. Unimpressed maybe, but I’m fairly broad minded when it comes to this kind of lowest common denominator satire. And make no mistake this is designed to be as offensive as possible. Every figure is a grotesque, every situation amped up to bawdy, slapstick pantomime. Whether it’s the song and dance number about the death of Princess Diana, or the caricature portrayals of Sadam Hussain and Osama bin Laden, at some point, something in this show will make you purse your lips, wince slightly and say ‘ooh’ instead of laughing.

But the actors give it their all and it is high energy throughout. There are many laugh out loud moments - for those with hardy constitutions - and Blair gets a reasonably even-handed assessment - even if the conclusion (spoiler alert!) is that he really was an egotistical war-monger.

But the absolutely oddest thing about the play, in which each member of the cast will take on multiple roles as various figures from UK and international politics, is that one of the ensemble looks EXACTLY like David Cameron, and I spent the whole show waiting for Cameron to put in an appearance. But he doesn’t. Can the similarity be entirely coincidental? Like a dossier of full of WMD, you couldn’t make it up…

YOUR DOING SATIRE WRONG IF YOUR PLEASING EVERYONE

I thoroughly enjoyed this madcap, edgy, and humorous 90 mins of the life and times of Tony Blair. The titular character is wonderfully performed with a possessed marionette vibe to be shaped by the forces around him. It's great to see satire in the same vein as old school 'Spitting image'. I only wish that they had not spoon-fed the meaning of the show to the audience. TRUST US! but otherwise, I'd give it 5 STARS.

I absolutely loved the show. We went the very first day. The script, jokes, sets, actors, music, lighting, everything was just great.
I hesitated as I very much dislike (trying to be polite) Tony Blair, but I am glad that I went. I learned a lot and for days I kept humming the songs from it.
Well done!!

Definitely one of those new shows by familiar names, where you're not exactly sure if you're enjoying it. And to be honest, I was a bit sleepy during this show with the staging and having to use your imagination to get through those scenes. Blair was good, a good number of the ensemble were decent, but I was quite surprised there were no Islamic actors chosen to play Bin Laden, so I'm not sure if this is quite the show to make fun of Bin Laden with finesse and absolute hilarity. There are some good jokes, but I'd be cautious about choosing to see this again.

Excellent. Just go with an open mind and enjoy the quality performance even if you may not agree with how history is being written.

It was irreverent, scurrilous and very funny. The actor played Blair as a Pretty straight kind of guy but the conclusion of the show that all political leaders were *rseholes and that Blair is a Busted Flush.

All the appeal of a bad "hey I've got a good idea" student show. Terrible and unfunny caricatures apart from an excellent Blair and a wonderfully Machiavellian Mandelson. Poor sound balance throughiut and the ensemble sound turned into a wall of incomprehensible mush. The vaguely comic treatment of John Smith's fatal heart attack was the final straw, I rarely walk out of a show and never that angry.

Guantanamo-levels of fun. It takes a certain skill and maliciousness to make something this improbably, impressively poor, tasteless, unsubtle and loud. We gave it half an hour before we left, to spare our ears and our sanity. Do not inflict this on yourself.

Pretty dismal stuff on lots of levels. Trite script, forgettable music, shouty over the top acting. I could go on...Awful.

Probably a good job I bought tickets before reading the mixed reviews. I thought it was ok but it could have been better. The sound quality when the ensemble were singing was poor, which was a pity as some of the songs were quite funny. Actor playing Blair had him to a tee. Others not so accurate but it was a spoof after all. Some of the jokes and scenes were a bit tasteless. A 3.5 star performance. And don't sit in the middle of the front row!

3 stars out of 5 for me.
I thought the acting was great, the singing reasonable and the speed of the show was good. The script however was quite predictable and the songs mostly not very clever. The sound seemed messed up near the start as I couldn't hear many of the lyrics. The song about the "special relationship" was probably the best, I'd have hoped the whole show would have been more at that level given the amount of source material. The scene where Tony and Gordon were at Oxford together seemed particularly pointless (especially as Gordon never went to Oxford!)
That all said opinions in the room varied wildly with some giving a standing ovation!
If you do go, check the half price hut.

In the words of my wife on our family WhatsApp group after the show “absolutely bl**dy sh*te”. Personally I thought she was unduly kind. Dreadful, banal, trite, ghastly, shallow, vacuous. Utterly without merit. Avoid.

I have to say I disagree with some of the reviews below. It was certainly an irreverent portrayal of the political classes. But the performances were first class, the singing and dancing was superb, and I found it very funny. It was also a clever reminder of the national and global events that took place during Tony Blair's premiership. I'd certainly recommend this show (Although best to avoid the front row!). Oh and yes, a fantastic venue.

Excellent performance with live music and an exceptionally comfortable venue for a trip through some parts of recent history some would like you to forget. Unfortunate splash zone in the front row.

Absolute drivel. The show performers were adequate singers and dancers but the writing was awful. The jokes were cringe worthy and at times insensitive to the armed forces who fight for our country. Save your money. Watch something else

Thoroughly enjoyable romp through the political career of Tony Blair, with some important and relevant political observations, especially at the end. Good band and very comfortable venue. Would recommend

An excellent, entertaining very professional show. Really funny. It helps to remember all the characters. Importantly the most comfortable seats on the fringe. Could easily be a West End production. Definitely see it.

Probably the worst thing I've ever put in my eyes and ears. Awful songs, terrible singing and acting, every joke seems to have been written by a 2 year old... I've booked in with a therapist for Monday to try and process what I went through for an hour and a half in the EICC last night. If you're considering booking this show because you think it's going to be a witty and enjoyable look back on New Labour and their many achievements then please please do not attend this thing - there's still time to remove the ticket from your basket! Take the hour and a half and spend it with loved ones - or attend and spend the rest of your life living with the regret like me.