Musical stage show transfers from Birmingham

The Spitting Image stage show is transferring to the West End.

The show, entitled Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical  will run from Wednesday May 24 to Saturday at the Phoenix Theatre, it has been announced today.

It follows a run at the Birmingham Rep earlier this year, where Sean Foley – who wrote the show with comics  Al Murray and Matt Forde  is artistic director.

Foley - who also directs the complex show – said: ‘I’m thrilled that Spitting Image The Musical is set to transfer to the West End.

‘With Rishi Sunak and Angela Rayner battling it out, Tom Cruise making his theatrical debut and Adele singing her heart out, I hope this uniquely anarchic musical will continue to make people laugh.' 

Murray added: ‘ When Spitting Image first appeared on British TV it blew people's minds. Now it's going to do it all over again in the West End.  All the elements the show was famed for: outrageous depictions of the great and the not so good, catchy songs, famous faces saying the things you've always wanted to hear them say, all reinvented for the stage. You won't know where to look.’

The show features more than  100 puppets including The King, Greta Thunberg, Meghan Markle, Tyson Fury, RuPaul, Angela Rayner, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellan and James Corden. 

Forde said: ‘Nothing can prepare you for what you're about to see, it's the wildest show in the West End. I don't want to give anything away, but you'll never look at Suella Braverman in the same way again.’

When the stage show debuted in Birmingham, the Telegraph awarded it five stars with reviewer Dominic Cavendish praising its ‘technical slickness, loving attention to detail, a high gag-rate and character-count and a trenchant storyline’  and in his four-star Mail on Sunday review Mark Wareham praised its ‘healthy disrespect for the Establishment’.

Other critics awarded three stars, with the Guardian praising the puppeteers but saying ‘the bulk of the joke-writing is predictable, leaning into cliches, catchphrases and obvious punchlines.

The show was originally subtitled 'Spitting Image Saves the World', but for the West End run producers are playing up the musical element.

Tickets for the London shows are now on sale here.

And read Chortle’s review of the Birmingham debut here.

Published: 23 Mar 2023