| Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical | |
|---|---|
 West End production artwork | |
| Written by | |
| Date premiered | 1 February 2023 |
| Place premiered | Birmingham Repertory Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Satire |
Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical is a British satirical puppet stage show by Al Murray, Matt Forde and Sean Foley, based on the TV series Spitting Image , which in turn is based on the 1984 series of the same name created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn.
The show made its world premiere at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre running from 1 February to 11 March 2023, directed by Sean Foley. The show was originally announced as Spitting Image Live: Featuring The Liar King referring to Boris Johnson parodying The Lion King . [1] Following the departure of Johnson as Prime Minister in September 2022, the production was renamed as Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Saves The World.
The production transferred to London's West End at the Phoenix Theatre for a limited run from 24 May until 26 August 2023, renamed again as Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical. [2] [3]
Steve Nallon is a British actor, writer, voice artist and impressionist. Nallon began his career as a stand-up performer on the northern club circuit in the 1970s.
Spitting Image is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television over 18 series which aired on the ITV network. The series was nominated and won numerous awards, including ten BAFTA Television Awards, and two Emmy Awards in 1985 and 1986 in the Popular Arts Category. The series features puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities and public figures, including British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and the British royal family. The series was the first to caricature Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
Louise Gold is an English puppeteer, actress and singer. Her long career has included puppetry on television and roles in musical theatre in the West End, as well as other television, film and voice roles.
Alastair James Hay Murray is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer.
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Nigel Plaskitt is an English actor, puppeteer, producer, and stage and television director.
Sean Foley is a British director, writer, comedian and actor. Following early success as part of the comedy double act The Right Size and their long-running stage show The Play What I Wrote, Foley has more recently become a director, including of several West End comedy productions. From 2019 to 2024, he was appointed as Artistic Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis is a two-hour comedy play, by British dramatist Terry Johnson, fictionalising a real-life 1938 meeting between Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud a year before the latter's death. It is named after the Freudian psychological term "hysteria".
Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.
Gerard Canonico is an American actor and singer, best known for his roles in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, including Gavroche in Les Misérables and Rich Goranski in Be More Chill. He appeared in the films Not Fade Away (2012) and Stuck (2017).
American Idiot is a sung-through rock musical based on the concept album of the same name by rock band Green Day. After a run at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009, the show moved to the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Previews began on March 24, 2010, and the musical officially opened on April 20, 2010. The show closed on April 24, 2011, after 422 performances. While Green Day did not appear in the production, vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong performed the role of "St. Jimmy" occasionally throughout the run.
Connections is the Royal National Theatre in London's annual youth theatre festival. It was founded in 1995 and sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell until 2007 when the Bank of America took over the sponsorship. The plays are also published by the National Theatre each year.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre companies and one of its most consistently innovative.
Matt Forde is an English comedian, impressionist, writer and presenter.
The Lanchester Marionettes, a professional puppet theatre, was co-founded in 1936 by Waldo and Muriel Lanchester. The 50-seat Lanchester Marionettes Theatre in Malvern, Worcestershire, England was “the only theatre in the country exclusively to be used for marionettes.” George Bernard Shaw’s final play, Shakes versus Shav, was written for the Lanchester Marionettes in 1949.
Spitting Image is a British satirical television puppet show. It is a revival of the 1984 series of the same name created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. Similar to the original, the series features puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities, such as Adele, James Corden, and Kanye West, as well as public figures, including former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, several Conservative cabinet members such as Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Priti Patel, and former US President Donald Trump.
The Crown Jewels is a comedy play by Simon Nye, based on Colonel Blood's attempt of stealing the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671.
Luke Garrod Kempner is an English impressionist, comedian and actor. After appearing in various films and musicals, he established a career in comedy, developing his own stand-up comedy show, and has since appeared as an impressionist on numerous sketch shows including Newzoids (2016), Tracey Ullman's Show (2017), Murder in Successville (2017), Spitting Image (2020–2021), The Last Leg (2021) and Deep Fake Neighbour Wars (2023), as well as appearing regularly on Big Brother's Bit on the Side (2016–2018).
Muriel Lanchester was a British ceramicist and co-founder of the puppet theatre company, the Lanchester Marionettes. Lanchester and her husband, Waldo were the first British people to appear on French television, as part of the World's Fair in Paris in 1937. George Bernard Shaw’s final play, Shakes versus Shav, was written for the Lanchester Marionettes in 1949.