Sally Ann Triplett and Sebastien Torkia in Berlusconi A New Musical at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London. Picture: Nick Rutter
Berlusconi A New Musical continues at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London until 29 April 2023.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Just as Donald Trump has the heartlands of America eating out of the palm of his hand even though to the rest of us he is a preening, morally bankrupt, self-delusional rogue, so to Italy where that smooth-tongued corrupt womanizer Silvio Berlusconi fooled the people over and over again and served three turbulent terms as Prime Minister.
The world premiere of a new sung-through musical by Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan at the 310-seater Elephant, Southwark Playhouse’s recently opened second theatre, traces Berlusconi’s rise from cruise-ship singer through property tycoon to founding Italy’s largest media empire, buying football giants AC Milan and the infamous bunga-bunga parties where he helped himself to “sexy shenanigans” before ending up in court in 2012 on tax fraud charges, one of dozens of criminal prosecutions in a stormy career that lasted, off and on, from 1994 to 2011.
A macho man who used and abused women – the good programme notes tell us the only women he promoted to government posts were “exceptionally beautiful and exceptionally unqualified” – Sebastien Torkia’s Berlusconi somehow has to make this preposterously narcissistic showboater likeable enough for the audience to care and, onstage for almost every minute of a show that’s 10-15 minutes too long, he at least gets high marks for energy and stamina.
While the talented Torkia puts in a mega-shift as “the Jesus Christ of Politics”, the women in his life get the best numbers: Emma Hatton as long-suffering wife Veronica lights up Act I with the bitter ‘Secret and Lies’, Jenny Fitzpatrick’s TV reporter mistress Fama presses the right buttons with a strongly-sung ‘All the Right Buttons’ and the pure-voiced Natalie Kassanga’s Bella makes the absolute most of ‘Smoking Gun’ and the cautionary finale ‘Be Careful Who You Vote For’ which has a whiff of Sondheim’s ‘Children Will Listen’ about it.
The always-excellent Sally Ann Triplett has her moments too as prosecutor Ilda while Susan Fay as Mama Rosa does what all mums do in seeing only the good in her boy and Matthew Woodyatt is a big man with a big voice as Berlusconi’s ideas man Antonio.
Other parts are played by McCallam Connell as the judge and John Conroy as Luigi.
There’s one genuine piece of comedy gold with ‘Weekend With Vlad’ where Berlusconi and a shirtless Vladimir Putin (Gavin Wilkinson), two villains together, let it all hang out. ‘Let’s Get This Show On the Road’ and ‘Paid, Played and Laid’ are clever numbers that stay in the mind but, unfortunately, so do too many four-letter words, good for cheap laughs but in the end they jar.
The driving rock-pop score in the care of musical director Jordan Li-Smith and his troops Kat Bax (bass), Liam McCloud (drums/percussion), Yue Miyagi (guitars) and Lewis West (trumpet/flugelhorn) needs more light and shade, Lucy Osborne’s set with various hands and body parts poking up from below-stage takes some getting used to while Rebecca Howell’s well-drilled choreography often lacks excitement.
The authors and director James Grieve have veered away from making this a biopic in favour of a more universal approach to the way power corrupts with a warning to look behind the practised charm of leaders and check out the substance of their policies and the unimpeachability of their morality. Eat your heart out, Boris!
At times Berlusconi has little echoes of Evita while lacking the one-great-number-after-another appeal of that masterpiece but these are early days and British writers Simmonds and Vaughan have nothing to reproach themselves for. And while a big future in the West End might be asking too much, take it over to Rome and Milan and they could have a cult hit on their hands.
Jeremy Chapman
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