When Margaret Thatcher left Westminster she became a disco diva. This is the unlikely premise behind co-writers Jon Brittain and Matt Tedford's cabaret-cum-playlet about the late PM's involvement in Section 28, which aimed to stop the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools.
The action opens with an exuberant chorus of YMCA and hurtles toward a singalong finale without giving the audience a chance to spot what tosh some of the plot is. The better moments find the PM (Tedford in drag) seeking advice from a talking portrait of Winston Churchill and having a Road to Damascus moment on Old Compton Street.
Jon Brittain’s direction certainly makes the cast of three get on their metaphorical bicycles and find plenty of work, with Ed Yelland and Robert Cawsey playing sleazy MPs and sleazier yuppies. Yelland excels as a bizarrely foul-mouthed punk incarnation of Peter Tatchell.
Ultimately, though, this majors on the camp appeal of a man dressed in twin set and pearls. The satire about homophobia and censorship feels like a patronising Eighties agitprop show. On the credit side, Tedford gets the Thatcheresque head tilt just right, on the debit side he looks uncannily like Martin Gore of Depeche Mode.
The predictable songs are delivered with gusto and the script does find a nice new take on a famous old line: “Where there are discos, may we bring harmonies,” announces Mrs T before breaking into song. Later on there is the declaration that “I have no intention of putting on a pantomime”. Methinks the Iron Lady was being ironic.
Until January 4 (020 7978 7040, theatre503.com)
