Tony Blair given the musical treatment twice over

EDINBURGH, Aug 7 (Reuters) Just two months after stepping down, Tony Blair is packing them in the aisles at the Edinburgh Fringe with a brace of satirical musicals about his premiership.

The world's largest arts festival revels in political theatre and Blair's decade as British prime minister has proved an irresistible inspiration for two very different shows playing to packed houses.

''Tony Blair - The Musical'' gives his premiership the full operatic treatment. ''Tony! The Blair Musical'' opts for satirical revue.

Both musicals berate Blair for the Iraq war that may forever tarnish his legacy and mock what they see as the showbusiness insincerity of a soundbite politician.

Critics flocked to back-to-back performances to see how Blair fared with political sketchwriter Quentin Letts concluding ''It's long overdue that he gets a pasting from the dramatic arts.'' ''They are complete cowards not to have done it 10 years ago and it's interesting that it's the younger generation doing it,'' he told Reuters after an afternoon of Blair singalongs.

''Tony! The Blair Musical'' boasts a neat twist as Ed Duncan Smith, student son of former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, plays his father in a number about the four Conservative chiefs who could never match Blair's electoral charisma.

Duncan Smith then crosses the political divide to play Blair's influential press spokesman Alastair Campbell.

Writer and director Chris Bush, 11 years old when Blair came to power, sees him as a tragic figure who makes the perfect subject for a musical as he is all about ''the glossy exterior''.

''Whenever he got something however catastrophically wrong, he did think he was getting it right.'' But there is affection in Bush's mocking satire. ''He has this misguided sincerity and faith in everything he did. But I don't think he is evil.'' James Lark, composer of ''Tony The Blair Musical,'' was just 17 when Blair swept to power in 1997 with a landslide victory.

He too tinges his work with sympathy, arguing that what made Blair a tragic figure was that, however hard he tried after joining the US invasion of Iraq, he was never going to recapture the euphoria felt when he first swept to power.

''That fascinated me -- he needed to be loved,'' said Lark.

''The expectations were so high because he made them so high. He was hoisted by his own petard, especially in the second half of his premiership.'' Mocking Blair in one song peppered with his most memorable soundbites, Lark said ''This is deliberately pushing the boundaries of taste in its sickly sweetness. I think that is his rhetorical style set to music.'' Reuters SS GC1545