15 August 2026
After the improbable and unstoppable runaway success of Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho, where could Matt Tedford and Jon Brittain take their grotesque comic drag creation next? How about Hollywood?
It’s lights! Camera! MAGGIE! as 80s and present day political satire and big musical numbers are thrown together in a show that is every bit as camp, chaotic and entertaining as the title suggests.
As Margaret Thatcher (Matt Tedford), bouffant hair perfect coiffed, and handbag clutched at a jaunty angle, goes to Hollywood to star as herself in a movie musical remake of Meryl Streep’s The Iron Lady directed by Ms Streep, the first thing that strikes you is the energy. This is a show that takes off like a rocket and rarely dips, throwing jokes, songs and increasingly ridiculous situations at the audience with considerable confidence. The political satire is particularly good, with plenty of knowing swipes at Thatcherism alongside jokes that feel very much rooted in the political moment we are living through now. There is a pleasing willingness to be broad without becoming entirely predictable.
And then there is Tinseltown. The show has great fun with the industry’s absurdities from celebrity culture, ego, image, exploitation and the bizarre machinery required to turn practically anyone into a star. It feels wonderfully current, particularly in its skewering of the industry’s capacity for self-delusion.
The songs (music by Matthew Floyd Jones) are another major strength. There are some genuinely great lyrics here, with enough musical wit and catchy moments to make the whole thing feel like considerably more than a succession of political gags. The combination of drag, musical comedy and political satire could easily have become exhausting, but the performers keep it moving.
It isn’t quite perfect; occasionally the sheer quantity of ideas threatens to overwhelm the material, but that is also part of its immense charm. Margaret Thatcher Queen of Hollywood is gloriously silly, sharply political and thoroughly entertaining. A Prime MiniSTAR is born!
