London.
MARGARET THATCHER QUEEN OF SOHO
by Jon Brittain and Matt Tedford.
Leicester Square Theatre 6 Leicester Place WC2H 7BX To 21 March 2015.
7.30pm & Sat late-show 9.30pm.
Runs 1hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 873 3433.
www.leicestersquaretheatre.com
Review: William Russell 17 March.
Very funny three-man revue.
Just what the Iron Lady would make of this undeniably funny show is anybody’s guess – a sense of humour was not something Margaret Thatcher possessed. It would all probably pass her by except for a slight feeling that it the goings-on were all rather infra dig.
Matt Tedford makes a very passable Maggie – he has the voice and the walk – even if he is not quite a Meryl Streep. And he has the true comic’s ability to milk the audience when it starts to get stroppy.
As to what it is all about, Maggie is being assailed about the controversial Clause 28, the part of the 1988 Local Government Act which dealt with the teaching in schools about homosexuality, and she seems rather unsure just why there is so much fuss.
She is attacked by a face from the past – the audience seemed to remember her – Jill Knight, MP for Edgbaston, once one of Ted Heath’s acolytes, who promoted the Clause and now sits in the House of Lords.
The hapless Baroness gets impersonated by one of Maggie’s supporting cast members. They consist of two go-go boys who play all the other parts in the lady’s life – apart from Denis, who does not appear. Nor does Carol, who is apparently working the lights.
Amid the camp and the froth some political points are scored, and not all the barbs are aimed at the right either – gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell comes in for one or two darts. And there is a glorious moment when Maggie converses with her hero, Winston Churchill, played by a talking photograph, who is unable to understand what all the fuss is about, being a public schoolboy and ex-army himself.
It was, on the evidence of the London opening night, a deserved sell-out on the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival last year.
Margaret Thatcher: Matt Tedford.
Everybody else: Nico Lennon, Ed Yelland.
Director: Jon Brittain.
Lighting: Alex Fernandes.
Sound: Jon Brittain, Edward Lewis.
2015-03-18 00:20:19
