Sunday, 7 April 2013

Spiral Notebook: Thou shalt fill the coffers

Mormon.jpgThe Book Of Mormon is doing great business at the Prince of Wales theatre.

Now impresarios are revisiting their back catalogued to see if they can reboot old favourites with a satirically religious theme to fill their coffers anew.

Mary Poppins: An enigmatic maiden sweeps into town without a place to stay. She finds lodgings and quickly founds a child-centred cult that ritually distributes magical liquids to adherents that are not what they seem. Features the hit song Like A Virgin.

Top Hat: The centrepiece of this Amish gaslight review, dubbed the unplugged musical, is the barn-raising scene assembled to the haunting acoustic melodies of If I Had A Hammer and Electric Dreams.

Oliver! A panto favourite in which the Royalists only have two weeks to save Christmas before republic pretender Cromwell cancels the festivities. Features the pop ditty Charles Just Wanna Have Fun.

Annie Get Your Gun: In the Deep South of America, fundamentalist Christians in bunkers sense a gang of East Coast liberals under orders from President Obama are prowling the hilltops looking to impose Sharia Law.

Starlight Express: John Travolta and Tom Cruise in a sci-if fantasy on roller skates in which a bunch of crazy alien invasion stories gain traction and money. Features If I Were A Rich Man and Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.

A Chorus Line: Heart-rending coming of age drama in which a troop of auditioning choirboys troop up the spire to hear the verdict of a tough-as-nails priest. Features the songs Boy For Sale and Fiddler On The Roof.

Sunday In The Park With George: Stephen Sondheim's cultured classic is re-imagined with former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey hiding in the bushes in Hyde Park spouting anti-Coalition rhetoric. Features Feed The Birds.

Greece: The tale of Achaicus, a Corinthian Christian, one of the Seventy Disciples, who according to the Bible, together with Fortunatus and Stephanas, carried a letter from the Corinthians to St Paul, and from St Paul to the Corinthians before joining the T-Birds and Pink Ladies at the Rydell High school dance.

Seventy Brides For Seventy Brothers: Tears, tiaras and tantrums as the Rev Sun Myung Moon prepares his Unification Church for another mass wedding.

Seven Brides For One Brother: Chaos and confusion at the Church of the Latter Day Saints as groom David forgets who's who in his polygamous nuptials with hilarious consequences. Features the song You're The Ones That I Want.

Seven Brides For Seven Brides: Controversial off-West End study of a mass lesbian wedding that became a spark for riots with the Church Of England. Features a reworking of the hit song Nothing Like A Dame.

Saturday Night Fever: Ferris Bueller fakes illness to avoid Matins.