http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040504/stage_nm/arts_britain_leader_dc_2'Follow My Leader' Play Lampoons Blair, Bush47 minutes ago Add Arts/Stage - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Astrid Zweynert
LONDON (Reuters) - A gung-ho President Bush (news - web sites) and a sanctimonious Prime Minster Tony Blair (news - web sites) have made their singalong debut on the London stage this week -- in a musical satire about the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).
"Follow My Leader" at London's Hampstead Theater is unlikely to be music to their ears though: it depicts Blair as a God-fearing, image-conscious puppet of the Americans while Bush appears as a religious zealot whose only aim is to increase U.S. influence in the world.
British playwright Alistair Beaton is quick to fend off criticism that his satirical musical about war is tasteless.
"Satire can be provocative and responsible at the same time," he told Reuters. "It's 'in your face' political theater. But what is bad taste is not a comedy about war but the war itself."
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