.png)
1 day ago
4
This queering of FBI history does not seem like the stuff of fringe theatre. Created by American comedy royalty – Harry Shearer, a long-time cast member of The Simpsons, pens the book and lyrics with Tom Leopold, of Cheers and Seinfeld writing fame – the music is by the late Peter Matz, known for his work with Barbra Streisand. Alongside those commercial chops, Mad Men actor Bryan Batt plays the lead. It is even more curious that, as a very American story about the life and times of the eponymous first director of the bureau, it premieres in Britain.
It has been decades in the making too (beginning life on radio in the 1990s). How has it ended up here?
The production deals with its own much-debated question of whether Hoover was gay. It answers it with a resounding “of course”, showing his longtime friend, Clyde Tolson (Hugo Bolton, fabulous), to be his closeted lover under cover of protege and fellow law enforcement agent.
An initially ailing Hoover, on his deathbed, is taken through his own Christmas Carol style reckoning, seeing his life re-enacted as a jazz-hands, Broadway musical. Cue chorus line numbers and songs that both send up and celebrate the musical theatre form.
His former child self (Jess Pratley) is the ghost of the past. We see how Hoover goes from precocious schoolboy, who knows how to blackmail his headteacher with compromising personal information, to doing exactly the same with four presidents during his tenure as head of the FBI.
Exuberantly directed by Josh Seymour, there is bags of irony, campiness and some sparkling satire as Hoover becomes the anti-hero of his life. His uglier side is left unvarnished – the dirt he digs up on Martin Luther King, his grubbily close relationship to press man Walter Winchell (Marc Elliott), his friendship with Joseph McCarthy, his clampdown on “commies” and even a passing reference to stamping out homosexuality in American society.
At its best, the comedy has a Mel Brooks zing to it. But alongside the humour there is anguish that feels real and human, particularly in the love between Hoover and Tolson. Their first encounter in a toilet brings gorgeously funny romance and some lovely songs accompany their relationship (Once Upon a Face and I’ll Never Miss Him). Repressed desire also comes in the form of Hoover’s secretary, Helen (Lucy O’Byrne) who gets one of the most riotous numbers in Helen’s Blues.
Sometimes it feels too big for the venue, with its parodies of show tunes and chorus lines. A character jokes that the second-half is not as good as the first and there is some truth in it. But this is a ridiculously fun ride of a musical, with entertaining, outre and imaginative set-pieces. You can see its West End ambitions, and with a bit of brushing up it deserves to be there.
