This satire about Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has the inspired concept of sending him up in song, from his aborted career as a cruise-ship crooner to political office, ownership of AC Milan, bunga bunga parties and a blizzard of court cases. You could do a whole series of musicals exposing the populist strongmen who behave like “dangerous buffoons” (as Berlusconi’s ex-wife puts it). There are so many contenders, after all.
In James Grieve’s production, written by Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan, Berlusconi arrives on a Romanesque staircase designed by Lucy Osborne. It is the eve of a court verdict in his 2012 trial for tax fraud. Played by Sebastien Torkia, he is sufficiently oily with slicked hair, a megawatt smile and an impenetrable sense of invincibility.
